


What Shadows Become

by 13luckystars



Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Hunters, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Demons, Dogs (briefly mentioned), Guns, M/M, Murder, Possession, Serial Killer, Sexual Assault (briefly mentioned), Spirits, government sanctioned supernatural hunters, supernatural au (kind of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:55:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25946209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13luckystars/pseuds/13luckystars
Summary: Ty Grady and Zane Garrett get sent on a special assignment, but it's nothing that Zane could have ever guessed. He was expecting serial killers or the cartel, not ghosts seeking revenge. To figure out what is going on, the two of them will have to travel to Michigan, and even once they're there they might have to deal with more than they were expecting.
Relationships: Zane Garrett/Ty Grady
Comments: 11
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically I started rewatching Supernatural and decided I wanted to make Ty and Zane hunters. And then this happened.
> 
> I hope you enjoy and are ready for some really self indulgent stuff. In context of the books, this could be considered to happen after book 6, so there are some spoilers, but they're incredibly minor. I also ignored parts of the books. So take all of that with a grain of salt.
> 
> (Also, as for the mention of sexual assault, it pertains to a real life case, and is incredibly brief. It is more alluded to than mentioned. I will note the chapter it is in when it is posted.)

_ Lansing, MI _

_ 1964 _

Linda Johnson stood just inside of her front door, hands on her hips, to survey everything she had been working so hard on. The months of hard work she had been putting in in secret spilled across her living room, into her dining room. She couldn’t have been prouder, and really, she kept reminding herself, she deserved that pride.

That morning, she had brought in a table, borrowed from one of her neighbors, and put it in front of her large bay windows. She had covered the table in a bright tablecloth, her favorite one, the white one covered in small, yellow flowers, and covered the tablecloth with the collection of Tupperware that she was showing off and selling. In the center of the display sat the order forms, which she hoped to have filled before her friends and neighbors left her house that afternoon.

The display in her living room was just that, a display to get people interested, to give them an idea, a hint, toward what they would be getting when they ordered from her. That display would bring the people in, would work as a talking point and a reference for all of her positive stories. What would seal the deal, would be what she had been laboring over all morning.

In her kitchen, every surface was covered in food that she had been cooking since her husband had stepped out of the house for work that morning. She had made everything she could think of, everything her friends and neighbors would be expecting from her. There were casseroles, and cookies, and loaves of bread that she had sliced, and fudges, and soups, and pastas, and many, many more things. And everything was in its own Tupperware container, working to show off the versatility of the product.

With a happy sigh, Linda turned toward the door. She had had no down time so far, and wouldn’t probably until she finally put her head to her pillow that night, but no matter what, she was happy and she was proud. She was proving that her husband didn’t have to be the only one to bring in the money they survived on, and she was proving to her friends and neighbors that they could do this too.

When her doorbell finally rang, her lips pulled back into a large, friendly smile. It was time to get to work.

…

The women who had shown up had had an hour and a half to grab things to eat and to admire the Tupperware. Linda had received many compliments, some on the product, some, from her closer friends, on what she was making of herself. Linda had felt her mind reeling at those ones, she had hoped that others would notice, but she hadn’t  _ really _ thought that they actually would. She was proud though, to hopefully inspire her friends to also make something of themselves.

The time had come to see who was actually willing to buy from her. This was her true moment; her friends coming in and eating and complimenting her had been fun and social, seeing if they would actually buy and then promote the product was the actual goal of the day.

Linda stood up, a small plate of food in her right hand, and positioned herself next to the table of Tupperware. She smiled at the women who surrounded her, who were giving her their undivided attention, even though she hadn’t said anything to grab them.

“I’m so thankful to every single one of you who showed up today,” she began, figuring she would ease them all in. “I’m so glad you came and had a good time. Now, I’m asking each one of you to think about all of the uses you’ve seen this amazing product fulfill. Think of all of the leftovers that won’t go bad just because you didn’t have anything to properly store them in. Think of all of the options you’ll be able to give your husband for lunch, because you now have better containers for him to transport.”

Linda stopped there, looked around the room again, making sure to make eye contact with every single woman. They were all ready, she could see it in their eyes. The next words that came out of her mouth were going to be the ones that would make the entire day, the entire last few months, completely worth it.

But those words never got out of her mouth, because her husband chose that moment to come in through the door.

The door banged open, smashing against the wall with the force. Every woman jumped, but no one as bad as Linda. The plate of food she had been holding launched out of her hand, and arched through the air, to land, face down, on the carpet. She watched it as if in slow motion, seeing every single crumb as it flew, seeing every bit of sauce as it landed and stained. When the plate was on the floor, she looked up at the door, knowing the look she would see on her husband's face when she finally got brave enough to look at him.

The look she had been expecting, the down turned corners of his mouth, the narrowed eyes, the clenched jaw, was all there. Her husband was fuming, she could see it in every line of his body. She had known, going into this venture, that he wouldn’t be happy with her, but she hadn’t been expecting the fury in his eyes. She had been expecting a fight, maybe some disappointment, and had been hoping that her first check would change his mind, make him allow her to continue what she had already been doing behind his back. But she hadn’t been expecting for him to show up, in the middle of her sales pitch, with murder in his eyes.

Linda also had not been expecting the slow way he looked around the room, the rumpled look to his clothes and hair, or the obvious stench of beer that wafted over to her on the breeze from the open door. In turn, she narrowed her eyes at him. This wasn’t the first time he had showed up like this; she had been ignoring these signs for too long, and she was getting tired of it.

“What’s going on here?” he slurred, moving jerkily into the house, his eyes locked on Linda now.

“I could ask you the same thing. Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

Her husband shrugged. “That’s none of your concern. What’s happening here though? Under my own roof? That is my concern.”

Linda shrugged. “I’m making us money, since you don’t seem to think that’s important anymore.”

Her husband glared at her and advanced, much quicker than Linda would have thought possible. Within seconds, he was across the living room, had pushed over the borrowed table and all the Tupperware, sending the plastic and the order forms flying, and had his hands on Linda’s shoulders. He was shaking her, his teeth gritted, as everyone in the room watched. Linda wasn’t sure whether she should be more concerned that he was doing it in front of their neighbors and friends or that none of them were trying to help her.

“You have no right, you bitch. Not when you’re going behind my back to make this money.”

“I was going to tell you,” Linda started, and had to stop when her husband shook her again, and managed to hit her head against the wall. “Once I got my first check.”

“So you were going to go behind my back for that long? And what were you going to do when you didn’t get any money from this?”

Linda didn’t say anything. She hadn’t let herself think of that.

“That’s what I fucking thought.”

Her husband shook her one more time, then stepped back from her. Linda knew better than to think that him stepping away from her meant that the violence was done.

The tension in the room was suffocating, as every single person in the room waited to see what was going to happen next. It seemed like no one was breathing, not a single heart was beating, because no one knew what was going to happen.

When her husband hadn’t moved for a moment, had just stood and stared at her, his deep, beer laced breaths gusting across her face, Linda turned to the other women in the room. She was going to smile and push the awkward tension away. She was going to thank them for coming, ask them to grab a form and bring it back to her if they wanted to order something. She was going to tell them all to have a good day, that she would see them later. She was going to talk, and they were going to listen, and the moment was going to pass.

Instead, her husband chose that moment to pull out a gun and pointed it up toward the ceiling.

“Not a single one of you are going to leave this house.”

He may have said the words to everyone, but he was staring Linda down, his eyes dead. “Especially not you.”

Linda sighed, she had begun to assume, in the last few years, that she was going to die by his hand, but she hadn’t thought it would be because of some Tupperware.

…

Later, Linda looked around her house. The Tupperware she had been so proud of was covering most of her living room floor. The table it had been proudly sitting on was on its side, the tablecloth now only halfway on it. Surrounding her, in nearly the same places they had been when the whole mess with her husband had started, were her friends and neighbors, their unmoving, silent bodies spread across the floor, sitting in puddles of blood.

Her husband was in front of her, the gun no longer in his hand, his eyes no longer dead but filled with fear.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said, his voice coming out in barely a whisper as he looked down at the gun she had grabbed from the floor somewhere along the way.

“And you didn’t have to do this,” she replied, looking around the room, at the bodies of her friends and neighbors.

Linda looked down at the gun in her hands, amazed at how quickly she had taken to using the weapon.

Then she turned her attention back to her husband. She had loved him, and loved him deeply, once. She wondered where that feeling had gone, what had gone so wrong in their marriage that she had gotten used to her husband coming home later and later, more often with beer and another woman’s perfume wafting off of him, what had gone so wrong between the two of them that he had become so violent. What had she done? What else should she have done?

“I love you,” Linda said, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Her husband began to say something, something that started with “I”, but before he could finish what he had to say, before he could convince her not to do what they both knew she was going to, before he said something that wasn’t “I love you”, Linda brought the gun up to her temple and pulled the trigger.

She hadn’t been able to deal with the carnage of her home. And now she wouldn’t ever have to.


	2. Chapter 2

At the trilling of Ty’s ringtone, both Ty and Zane let out a groan.

“Fuck. I wish you didn’t have to grab that.”

Ty thrust into Zane again, squeezing his wrists in agreement. “I’ll be right back.”

After pulling out of Zane, and looking down at him mournfully, Ty crossed the room to grab up his phone. If it had been anyone other than Richard Burns, Ty would have taken a different option than fully stopping what he was doing with Zane to answer the call. With almost anyone else, he could have grabbed the phone and gone back to Zane. He could have put the phone on speaker and kept the two of them quiet as the person on the other end of the phone told him what they needed to. 

But the person calling was Richard Burns, so Ty grabbed up his phone, sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, and pressed the answer button. “Grady,” he said, walking back over to the bed and sitting beside Zane, resting a hand on his thigh.

Zane covered Ty’s hand with one of his own, and covered his face with his other arm. Neither of them were happy with this timing. Why couldn’t Burns have waited just a little longer?

“Good morning Ty,” Burns said, his voice a bit too chipper.

“What do you want Dick?”

“Am I interrupting something?”

“You seem to always be interrupting something.”

“Then tell her I said hello.”

Ty grinned and turned to look back at Zane. “My boss says hello.”

Zane pulled his arm from across his eyes just enough for Ty to see his raised eyebrow. His only response was his grin. He would explain after, Zane would get a kick out of it.

“Now, to business,” Burns said, bringing Ty back to the conversation, and away from staring at Zane. “I’m sending you out on an assignment.”

“I don’t really do those anymore, Dick,” Ty said, raising his own eyebrows. He felt Zane squeeze his hand in reassurance. They hadn’t ever really talked about the extra assignments Burns sent him out on, but it was hard to keep their existence a secret from Zane completely. Ty had stopped doing them for this reason, he didn’t like having the secret, not when Zane was so important to him. Burns didn’t know why Ty had wanted to stop, but he was aware that he wanted to stop. So why was he putting him on another one?

“Yes, I know, but I am hoping that you’ll consider doing this one. You know you’re one of our best.”

“Is there a connection between this one and someone important?”

“No.”

“Then why is it important for me to do it?”

Burns didn’t say anything. Ty didn’t like it, didn’t like that he wasn’t willing to answer his questions, but still expected Ty to pick up and do what he was told.

“What about my current assignments? I can’t just leave and dump all of the responsibility of them on Garrett.”

“Your current assignments are going to be redistributed. Your partner is going with you on this one.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Okay, then why?”

“You have your reasons for wanting to quit my extra assignments. I figured if I put you and Special Agent Garrett on them, or at least this one, you might feel comfortable enough to do them. That is as long as you believe Special Agent Garrett has proven himself useful enough for this kind of assignment.”

“Garrett’s a damn good agent and I trust him with my life,” Ty started, receiving another squeeze to his hand from Zane. Normally, he might not tell this sort of thing to Burns, but this was a sort of special situation where the information was needed. “He’ll need some intense briefing for this, but I wouldn’t want anyone else there with me.”

“Good. I’m leaving the initial briefing to you, but I’ll call him too to let him know about the assignment. I want the two of you here at eight o’clock sharp, three days from now.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, now go back to what you were doing.”

Ty hung up from Burns without another word. For another few minutes, he sat where he was at the edge of the bed, his hand on Zane’s thigh, his back pressed up against Zane’s knee. Everything he had told Burns was the truth, if he was going to do another one of these assignments, the only other person he wanted with him, and trusted with him, was Zane. Zane could take care of himself, but these assignments were something completely on their own. As much as Ty knew Zane would be able to take to this sort of thing like no other agent, he would spend every single second in the field worried about him.

When they had been silent for a good five minutes, Zane rubbing his thumb against Ty’s hand and just waiting for something to be said, Ty turned to look at Zane. He found that Zane had already been watching him, his dark eyes intent and questioning.

“You’re going to be getting a call from Burns probably any minute,” Ty said, squeezing Zane’s thigh before getting up and grabbing Zane’s phone from the other side of the room. He put it down on the bed within Zane’s reach, and sat back down where he had been.

“What about?”

“An assignment.”

Zane lifted his eyebrows in a silent question.

“We have two days, and I have so much to explain to you.”

“Okay.”

“Burns is sending us on an assignment, we have to be in D.C. to brief in three days.”

“Okay.”

“And before then, I have to brief you.”

“Okay.”

“Y’know, that’s a little annoying.”

“I can tell you’re fighting something, I’m content to wait.”

Ty took a moment just to look at Zane, and sighed. “I have no choice, these are things I never thought I would tell you, but Burns wants me to do the assignment. He thinks that if you’re with me, it’ll make it easier.”

“What does that mean?”

Ty rubbed a hand down his face. “When I first started doing these assignments for Burns, he gave me conditions that would allow me to get out of them. Things like marriage or children. But I told him after West Virginia that I didn’t want to do them anymore, even though I wasn’t getting married and I didn’t have a kid. He didn’t ask any questions, but he knew there was something in my life that had changed that made it so I didn’t want to put myself into that kind of danger anymore. Obviously, since we both still have our jobs and we’re still partners, I didn’t tell him any specifics, I just let him assume what he was going to. Now though, it seems that he figures if you’re with me, the assignments will be safer, which I suppose they might be, and I’ll do them. I don’t know if I’ll continue to do them, but I’m going to do this one.”

“Because Burns asked you to.”

“Because Burns asked me to.” Ty took Zane’s hand in his, brought it up to his lips, pressed a kiss there, and held their hands against his chest. “And because he’s sending you with me.”

Zane nodded slowly. “I don’t know anything about these though. And I don’t have the same skills you do.”

“You won’t need them, not for this. Or at least I assume you won’t, if Burns thinks you’re good enough to do whatever job he’s sending us on.”

“Okay. You know I have your back.”

Ty nodded, and just like that, as if knowing the two of them were on the same page, Zane’s phone began to ring.

Zane kept his eyes on Ty’s when he answered. “Garrett.”

The call was short, mostly just Zane agreeing and asking questions he assumed he should, despite having the information already from Ty. After a much shorter time than Ty’s own phone call, Zane was hanging up and throwing his phone off of the bed.

“We can talk about the assignment, and you can brief me in whatever it is you need to, later. Right now, I want you back inside me.”

Ty let out a laugh, but complied. He didn’t have to be told that twice.

…

Later on that afternoon, after spending most of the morning in bed, and only surfacing to take a shower because Zane got hungry, the two of them finally left the bedroom. While Zane made up their breakfast, Ty started telling him everything he was going to need to know.

“So, first things first, when I begin telling you all of this, you have to keep your mind open. You have to remember that this assignment, and plenty others before it, have been government sanctioned, so I am _ not  _ crazy.”

Zane turned around from the stove at that, a judgemental eyebrow raised.

Ty flipped him off, and continued. “I need you to understand that what I am about to tell you is completely true and any misgivings you have about anything can be proven by going through plenty of files and evidence.”

“Okay, Ty, I get it. You’re about to tell me something that will make me think you are certifiable, but I shouldn’t because you can be proven to be correct. Instead of giving me all of these warnings, why don’t you just jump into it?”

Ty huffed. “Fine. Ghosts are real.”

Zane turned around again and stared Ty down. But, since this was the truth, Ty just stared back. If he had been yanking Zane’s chain, he would have laughed and moved on, but he was telling the truth.

“Ty,” Zane said, the word vaguely threatening.

“Zane,” Ty responded, adopting the same tone.

“You’re telling me that all of these extra assignments, the ones that I assumed had to do with top secret government secrets, were ghost hunting missions?”

“Not only ghosts, but yes.”

“No.”

“Yes, Zane. This is what I was warning you about. I can pull files and evidence if you want them-”

“Oh, I want them.”

“-but I’m telling you the truth.”

“Why you?”

Ty shrugged. “I proved myself when I joined the FBI.”

“What the hell does that mean? How do you prove that you’re capable for ghost hunting?”

“Well, all of that is highly classified, but what I can tell you is that we ran into some supernatural stuff while overseas and Sidewinder took care of it. After that they knew I could handle it and put me on any assignment they came across.”

“I want whatever files I can have.”

“I’ll tell Burns to have them ready. But this is what we’re being sent after. It could be a spirit, it could be a demon, it could be any number of other things, but this is what the extra assignments are.”

“How the hell am I supposed to be helpful for this? I only barely believe you, and that has absolutely everything to do with this coming from  _ you _ and not someone else. I don’t know anything about this. How am I going to be anything other than in the way?”

“A lot of these assignments are similar to what we deal with normally. The weapons I use are similar to the ones we use, just slightly modified to work, we still have to chase down the bad guys, and figuring out the answer is a lot of research and file surfing. That’s probably why Burns thinks you’ll be helpful, we all know you’re a damn good field agent and can hold your own against perps, but you’re much better at the file surfing than I am.”

Zane sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Reflecting back, deciding to start telling Zane all of these things while he was cooking their breakfast probably wasn’t the best idea, but Ty hadn’t wanted to wait. He had wanted to jump right in, get Zane comfortable so they could start talking about specifics. On that end, Ty’s timing was perfect. Zane would get his questions and disbelief out, for the most part, and they could spend the rest of the time before getting to D.C. going over the things Zane would need to know, the things that Ty already knew and took as fact and could pull out anytime he needed. For their eggs though, Ty’s timing could have been better.

If the food didn’t turn out as good as usual, Ty wouldn’t say anything. It would be his fault anyway.

“Fine. I want the files and I want the evidence, but for now, since I have no other choice, I’ll believe you. I’m guessing you have a crash course that we’re going to go through over the next two days?”

“Absolutely,” Ty said, a grin spreading across his face.

Zane sighed again. “That is your trouble voice, and I don’t like it.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Zane, but if I did, I would say that you actually love it.”

“If that’s what you have to keep telling yourself.”

“We’re going to have so much fun Zane.”

“I’m worried for my person Ty.”

“Then you’re smart.”

Zane sighed one more time, and shut the burners off. “Come get your food. I refuse to do anything else ghosty until my stomach is full.”

“So no watching  _ Supernatural _ as we eat?”

Zane whipped his head in Ty’s direction. “You’re not trying to tell me that all of that is real.”

Ty shrugged. “It’s not fake.”

“How much of it is the same?”

“I stole some methods to test, and so far they’ve all checked out.”

Zane closed his eyes and breathed, in and out, deeply, several times. He didn’t open his eyes when he said, “Tonight, after this day of whatever the crash course is, I expect to be thoroughly fucked.”

“You don’t have to ask twice, baby.”

“Oh, I didn’t intend to. And when we go see Burns, we’re going to have words.”

Ty wanted to laugh, oh did he want to laugh  _ so bad _ , but he kept himself under control. The next few days were going to be endlessly entertaining, that was for sure.


	3. Chapter 3

After being introduced to Burns’ office, Zane held the door open so Ty could walk in in front of him. It had nothing to do with watching Ty walk, Ty was sure.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Burns said, looking up from the papers on his desk. He pointedly looked at the chairs in front of his desk, and probably to his great surprise, both Zane and Ty took them.

Ty kind of wanted to smirk, but then Burns would know he had picked up on that annoyance of his.

“Good morning,” Ty responded instead, crossing his legs and seeing Zane do the same out of the corner of his eye.

They both looked to Burns, neutral expressions on their faces. Burns looked back and forth between them, analyzing them, looking them over to see how they were dealing, and guessing how they would do on the assignment. Ty had no doubt that they would get rid of whatever there was to get rid of, he hadn’t failed before, and Zane was a good partner and a good study. He might still be skeptical, and prone to sighing in exasperation, but he would have Ty’s back no matter what they were facing, there was no doubt about that.

“Did the two of you spend your last few days well?” Burns asked, finally.

Ty nodded, trying to keep his face neutral. That statement hit a little too close to home, it seemed too much like a question you would ask two people who you knew were spending all of their time together and likely in bed. That wasn’t how Burns meant it, it couldn’t be, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a spike of panic that zinged through Ty at the words.

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’. Maybe he was overcompensating for his discomfort, but Burns didn’t need to know that. He would just assume that Ty was being his normal, annoying self.

Burns looked to Zane for confirmation.

When Zane nodded, and didn’t say anything else, Ty felt like smirking again.

“Alright then, since it seems like both of you are trying to be as vague as possible, I’m just going to jump right in. Stop me if I make a wrong assumption.”

Burns looked between the two of them one more time, and put his hand down on the files in front of him. “I’m going to assume that the two of you spent the last two days running a crash course. Garrett, that means you’re caught up with just what kind of assignment I’m sending you on.”

Zane nodded.

“Good, these are all of the files the two of you are going to need and all of the files you are going to get. I’m going to assume that Garrett doesn’t quite believe in what the two of you are going after, so I pulled files that can work as some sort of proof as well as reference points for this assignment. I want to make it clear though that these are not all of the files for every special assignment. They are only ones that have some sort of connection to this case. Any information not pertinent to this case was deemed nonessential and so was not provided. This information is all still classified, and that isn’t going to change just because Garrett’s been pulled in. He could have been skeptical until he came face to face with whatever this is, for all I or anyone else cared.

It felt, to Ty, that Burns was over explaining and overexaggerating this part. And he didn’t appreciate it. This wasn’t what they were here for, and if Burns thought for one second that Ty asked for files to be pulled for no reason, then Burns didn’t know him as well as he thought he did. The implication that they would have left Ty and Zane high and dry until Zane came face to face with his first supernatural being was annoying and offensive, and the longer Burns talked, the more he lost Ty. So, he could imagine that Zane was drifting off too.

“Neither one of us needs to be told that you wouldn’t pull files for us, Dick. First off because we both know that’s bullshit. If you hadn’t gotten the files, we wouldn’t be sitting here because I wouldn’t have agreed to do the assignment. I refuse to put Zane in danger just because the FBI labelled the information nonessential and refused to give it to us. And I know you wouldn’t keep information from us that could help make this go away faster.”

Burns looked to Ty, annoyance written clearly across his face. They stared one another down for a moment, before inevitably, Burns moved on.

Burns grabbed a specific file off the top of the others and waved it around as he spoke. “This file has everything in it that we could come up with, from here, concerning the being that we are sending the two of you after. Anything else you are able to find will be put in this file along with its current contents.”

Ty reached out his hand, grabbing the file when Burns held it out to him. “We’re going to Michigan?” he asked.

These assignments had sent Ty all over the place, had made him pull various favors and other experts in, had turned him into all kinds of people. Nothing surprised Ty about these anymore, but Michigan wasn’t somewhere he had frequented. He had maybe been there once or twice.

“Will you be okay to drive?”

Ty nodded distractedly as he glanced over the contents of the file. He could feel Zane watching him, trying to read his reaction. But Ty didn’t react, and wouldn’t until Zane had read through on his own, and they could start talking through theories. When Ty saw all that he thought he was going to get while in the room, he passed the file over to Zane.

“I would wait until later to look at that, maybe after we eat.”

Zane nodded and turned back to Burns.

“You need to get going by tomorrow morning. All of your current assignments are being redistributed today and the rest of your team is being told that you will not be returning for the foreseeable future and also not to try to contact you. They understand that you’ll be in deep cover, what you decide to answer when you get back is completely up to the two of you. Ty, you know what is classified in regards to these assignments, explain to Zane before the two of you come back.”

With nothing more to say, Burns handed the stack of files from his desk to Zane, and turned to his own work. The two agents were dismissed.

Ty looked over to Zane, wondering if he was going to take the dismissal and leave so easily, or act on his threat to ‘have words’ with Burns. When Zane didn’t immediately move, despite having everything they needed and everything they were going to get from Burns, Ty got comfortable in his seat. He didn’t necessarily want Zane to fight with Burns, for many reasons including the possibility of finding his partner in deep trouble with their boss and the Bureau, but if it was going to happen then it was going to happen. He knew there wasn’t a lot he could do to stop it.

“Actually Director Burns, I have a question before we go.”

Burns looked up from his work, a single eyebrow cocked in question. He didn’t look thrilled or amused by the two agents not listening to his dismissal.

Ty could only wonder how that would affect the oncoming fight. He also wondered if Burns knew what Zane was going to ask, or how he was going to act about this.

For a moment, Zane just kept a chilly gaze on Burns. The two stared one another down, neither one willing to give up.

“What the actual fuck?” Zane finally asked, his tone devoid of any emotion.

“You’re going to have to make a better inquiry than that Special Agent Garrett.”

“You know exactly how to answer an inquiry like that Burns. What the fuck are these assignments and why are they so covert?”

“You’re smart, you know exactly why these assignments are covert.”

Zane’s jaw tightened. “Then why are you sending Grady on them? Why are you using him like this? Doesn’t he fucking do enough for you?” Zane spit out.

Burns’ eyes flashed over in anger, but he just stared at Zane.

Ty stood from his chair the moment the words were out of Zane’s mouth. “Maybe we should go.”

“Maybe you should listen to your partner, Special Agent Garrett.”

“And maybe you should find someone else to do your dirty work,” Zane said, before quickly standing from his seat and marching straight out the door.

Neither one of them said a word to one another until they were outside of the building, back inside Ty’s Bronco. They had made the decision that morning that driving to D.C. together wouldn’t be that weird. They were partners, they were going to D.C. to talk to Burns together, and they lived close to one another. It would make less sense for them to make the drive separately, they would create more pollution and whatnot. It had still felt a little odd, like they would be caught, but neither of them had brought that up, despite it being the whole reason they had had to so fully talk through the pros and cons of driving to D.C. together in the first place.

Once inside though, Ty thought maybe they should have planned for something else. Zane had gotten much too riled up in Burn’s office, and not just over information that was being held by only a few despite affecting many. They were partners, yes, but was that something anyone who knew them would expect from their partnership? Ty didn’t know the answer to that, and it made him nervous.

And beyond that, Zane was visibly angry, practically seething in the passenger seat. Ty wasn’t sure he wanted to be stuck in such a small area with that, left waiting for the bomb to explode.

Zane turned to Ty, a sigh rushing from him, and his features smoothing over as he calmed. “I’m sorry about that. I thought I was going in there with all of my anger being directed toward Burns for keeping me in the dark, but the more I thought about it, the angrier I got about being kept in the dark while you went off and did these jobs on your own.”

“Are you angry because of the assignments themselves or me doing them on my own?” Ty asked, genuinely curious.

“Both,” Zane answered with a shrug.

Ty had already known the answer, he had just wanted to hear Zane say it.

“Well, there’s nothing to be done about it now,” Ty said, reaching out and patting Zane on the thigh. “We just have to hope that Burns doesn’t decide to pull you because of that stunt.”

“Pull me from this specifically or our partnership in general?”

“Both,” Ty parrotted back.

“Yeah, I guess I deserve that,” Zane said, with another sigh.

“You do, but it’s fine. We’ll work past it all. Just try not to explode the next time you’re in the room with him. It won’t work well in either of our favors.”

“Yeah, I guess I can try.”

“Good,” Ty said, turning his attention from Zane and toward getting them on the road.

For a moment, the two of them sat in silence, both of them thinking back to what had happened with Burns. After a moment though, Zane spoke up.

“Is it that bad?” Zane asked, tapping the case file against his thighs. The others were in the backseat, even though it was likely they would be all over by the time they got back to Ty’s row house.

Ty shrugged, pulling out of his parking space and maneuvering them out of the parking garage. “For someone with your experience? Maybe not. But for your first case like this, maybe. It’s pretty gruesome, but I figured you wouldn’t want to look at it the first time with Burns right there.”

Zane nodded. “But you think I should eat first?”

“Depends on when you want to eat.” Ty looked over at Zane, making sure to maintain eye contact for a moment before continuing. “It made me a little queasy when I looked at it.”

“Noted.”

Ty noticed that Zane continued to tap the file against his leg, but didn’t open it. That was probably for the best, even though Zane reading it now would have given them a better leg up on figuring out what they were dealing with. Ty already had some ideas, so he already had some ideas of what he would need to make sure was in the Bronco before they left for Michigan, but he wasn’t vain or stubborn enough to think that Zane didn’t have a chance at seeing things that he wouldn’t think of until later.

“When did you want to eat?”

“Huh?” Zane asked, distracted. Ty vaguely wondered what he was thinking about, but decided not to push. “Closer to home is fine. Unless you want to eat now.”

“Nope, closer to home is fine with me. We did eat before we left Zane.”

“You were the one who offered food.”

“Because I know what you’re like.”

Zane looked over at Ty, a fake glare in his eyes, but he couldn’t keep the look up. Before it could even really take effect, the corners of Zane’s lips were lifting in a smile and he was laughing. “Yeah, I suppose you do.”

“The amount of times I have had to feed you is ridiculous.”

“You don’t have to feed me, I am very capable of feeding myself.”

“Then why doesn’t it feel that way anytime we go somewhere?”

Zane shrugged.

Ty rolled his eyes. “You’ll get food, and then we’ll start in. We don’t have to leave until morning, but it’ll be easier to read through things when we have access to a table.”

“Yeah, how long is that drive going to be anyway? Is it really a better idea to drive?”

“I always drive for these. It keeps the government and FBI out of anything I do. If anything goes really wrong, we can rely on Burns getting us out of trouble, but unless it’s  _ really _ bad, we keep to ourselves. And we can’t do that if we are flying and staying in places due to their funding. So yeah, it is better to drive. And from home to Michigan? I don’t know for sure, because I don’t know for sure for the place we’re actually going, but from home to Detroit is about eight hours, I think.”

“That’s not too bad.”

“ I t isn’t the worst I’ve done. It’s not the best either, but it’s not the worst. Usually they have someone a bit more local take the cases further away, but they put us on this one.”

“Are you worried that there’s a reason that we’re on it? Specifically?”

“Not...really. I don’t know, I don’t like that Burns wouldn’t answer me when I asked, and I don’t like that we were called in when, like I said, usually they call in someone closer to the actual case. It usually means that they’ve had trouble in the past getting this figured out, so they’re sending me in because I have a good track record for getting these done. But this one is giving me a bad feeling.”

Zane nodded, ready to take Ty’s lead on that. “Do you have any ideas?”

“Absolutely. But, I don’t want to discuss them until you’ve had a chance to look over things, and hopefully come to your own conclusions.” Ty looked over at Zane, and with little thought, grabbed Zane’s hand to hold in his. “That’s the good part about having a partner.”

Zane smiled. “I’ll try my best.”

“You’ll have plenty of resources, I have no doubt you’ll come up with something. I think we’ll talk about it when we set out tomorrow.”

“Alright, that sounds good to me.”

Out of the corner of Ty’s eye, he could see Zane grinning. He didn’t like that grin, especially when there wasn’t something obvious that would have caused it.

“What?” Ty asked, suspiciously. He thought, for just a second, of pulling his hand away from Zane to keep himself safe.

Zane turned to Ty, and squeezed his hand. “Now that all of that is settled, you can feed me.”

Ty rolled his eyes and sighed. The hour drive they had back to Baltimore was too much, there was no way the two of them were going to survive the eight hour drive they would be facing the next day. “You be quiet over there, watch the scenery or something.”

With his eyes firmly on the side of Ty’s face, and his grin softening into a smile, Zane replied, “I am.”


	4. Chapter 4

Despite spending the entire day together, and only separating when Zane ran to his apartment to grab some things for the trip, Ty turned to Zane the moment the front doors of the Bronco closed as if they hadn’t spoken to one another in days. “What did you come up with?” he asked, referring to the case for the first time since returning from their quick trip to D.C..

Zane grabbed out his notebook and opened it to the page that he had filled with notes. From where Ty was sitting, it looked like a lot of scribbling. The page was filled with words, but some words were underlined, some were scratched out, and some were circled, the circles going around and around until there had to be an indent in the first few pages after that one. Zane twirled a pen in his other hand as he read over the things he had written.

"Okay, I'm almost certain it's a spirit, most likely a woman in white situation."

Ty grinned at the specifics. He knew Zane would take to this sort of thing like a duck to water. "Why do you say that?"

"The articles say authorities came to the home because a neighbor had heard gunshots. When they arrived there, they found a room full of women who had been shot to death, including the woman who lived there. Her husband was found curled up on the floor, he refused to say anything about what had happened. The obituary for his wife, one Linda Johnson, clarified that she had taken her own life. So, I'm saying her husband came home, she found out he had cheated on her, so she took a gun, shot all of her friends, and then shot herself too. Woman in white."

Ty nodded, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. "You've come to all the same conclusions I have."

"Then why did I need to be brought in?"

"To bring me comfort. Burns knows I wasn't going to do these jobs anymore, I told you he must figure that having you there will be a comfort that would convince me to do it. And besides, there's still plenty of things we'll need to figure out, something will definitely come to you quicker than it does to me."

Ty grinned over at Zane, a thought running through his mind and out of his mouth before Zane could respond. “This isn’t going to be something you can use your knives on.”

Zane looked over at Ty, an eyebrow raised in question. “What do you mean?”

“If we’re dealing with a spirit, they won’t do any good. She won’t have a corporeal body.”

“Well, shit,” Zane said, the words almost a whisper.

“Good thing you have more than one talent.”

Zane rolled his eyes and went quiet, moving on from that line of conversation. He was quiet for a moment, before he sighed and looked down at his notes again. "There are a few things I'm not sure about."

"There's always something," Ty said, sounding nearly cheerful. “What are you unsure of?”

Zane nodded. "I don't know where she got the gun. I don't know if it was something they already had in the house, or if it was something that was brought in. But if it was brought in, it brings the question of who brought it in, and that can change whether she's really a woman in white."

"It doesn't really matter though, not unless we find a reason for it to. If she's a spirit, we salt and burn her bones."

"But what if it means she's not an avenging spirit, and is connected to something else that will make salting and burning her bones redundant?"

Ty shrugged. "We try it first and go from there."

Zane nodded, but Ty knew he wasn't satisfied with the answer. Ty wasn't either, not really, but this sort of thing wasn't something he had ever been able to fully plan for. Just because Zane was here, it didn't mean he was going to start trying to.

"And what about the current victims," Zane muttered, almost to himself.

"What about the victims, Zane?" Ty asked, looking over at his partner as much as driving allowed him to. He hadn't yet looked at the current victims at all.

"I'm not sure what their connection is yet."

"Well, let's go with the woman in white theory as our main theory, pretend it's already been confirmed. If that's the case, what reason would the spirit of Linda Johnson have for coming back and killing them?"

"And why now? Why not over the years? All of these victims are different ages, she could have been doing this for years. But instead she's only come back now."

"I don't know. When we get there, we'll go to the house, see if there's anything we can see. If we need to, we'll talk to her husband. Does that file mention where he is?"

"Yeah, an assisted living residence."

"As of?"

"As of two months ago."

Zane looked up at Ty, realization dawning on his face. "Do you think the husband being moved into assisted living has anything to do with the killings?"

"It can't be a coincidence." Ty sighed. "If we can, we'll definitely get in to see the husband, see if he knows anything or can give us more information than the articles and the obituary."

Zane nodded, and folded his notebook back up. He looked out the window, just taking in the scenery they could see from the highway. They had plenty of time in the car, plenty of time to think and talk through theories. He could take a few minutes reprieve, use it to make the words stop spinning in his eyes.

…

About seven hours later, they drove across the state line into Michigan. They still had a few hours to go, but the fact that they were getting close was enough to perk Zane's attention. And driving into Michigan, seeing the resurgence of hills that they had missed throughout their drive through Ohio, and the trees that were becoming multicolored with the beginning of fall, brought Zane back to their harrowing assignment to try to get Julian Cross to Washington D.C.. 

Rolling his head against the seat, Zane looked over at Ty. "Actually knowing that we're in Michigan this time, I can say that it is pretty."

Ty grunted. "Yeah, sure, when we aren't battling a snow storm."

"Exactly."

Zane smiled, and rolled back so he was facing the road too. His smile got even wider when Ty reached out, grabbed his hand, and kissed his knuckles without ever looking away from the road. He wasn't at all surprised when Ty kept his hand and rested them both on his knee.

For moments like this, Zane was so glad that they were driving.

…

When Ty finally pulled the Bronco into a spot at a small motel in Lansing, he let out a breath. He was tired, sore, and antsy. Absolutely not the way he wanted to feel when first arriving in the town they would be investigating in.

Zane extricated his hand from Ty's, the feeling slowly going back into his fingers. He had lost feeling in his hand about half an hour back, the blood flow just not going to his fingers when squeezed between Ty's and with his arm at such an awkward angle, but he hadn't said anything. He liked holding Ty's hand too much for that.

He jumped out of the Bronco, going immediately to get their bags. When he walked back up to the front, Ty was waiting for him, his hand out to take his own bag.

Zane just shrugged and motioned for Ty to go forward. He could carry their bags himself.

Ty pushed open the door to the small motel, making sure he pushed it hard enough that Zane could walk in behind him. From the outside, the building was unassuming and kind of boring. The brown siding and white, wooden balconies and accents would never have grabbed their attention if not for the vacancy sign. The inside was just as unassuming: dark blue carpet ran as far as Ty could see, it was well lit but in soft, yellow light. and the first thing in the building was a dark brown desk with a middle aged woman standing behind it. She had dark brown hair and eyes, and smile lines around her eyes that popped out when she smiled at them.

"Good afternoon gentlemen, I'm guessing you're looking for a room?"

Ty walked right up to the desk and leaned an arm on top of it. He smiled at the woman before saying, "Yes ma'am."

The woman looked to her computer, tapped a few things on her keyboard, and looked back up at Ty. "We have one more room with a queen sized bed, if that will work?"

After all the time he had spent with Zane, and all the times people had seen them and assumed they were together from a glance or a misinterpretation of the word 'partner' the assumption didn't faze Ty. Really, it worked just as well for him. In that split second he decided he was going to take advantage of it. 

"That'll work perfectly," Ty said, giving the woman another gentle smile.

Even though she was the one to make the assumption, Ty saw the slight widening of her eyes when he confirmed what she had assumed. For a moment, the two of them just looked at one another, the woman in slight surprise, and Ty patiently waiting for her to check them into the room and give them the keycards.

The woman visibly shook herself, and Ty had to work to keep a neutral look on his face. Finally, she smiled again, this one just as bright as the first, and went back to her computer. Within moments, she was giving them the keycards and the two of them were on their way to the room.

Ty once again took the lead, swiping their key card in the door, and pushing it open for Zane to bring their bags in. Zane looked around the room while Ty stood waiting for him to walk inside enough for the door to close without hitting him. The room was nice, styled in tan and chocolate brown and white. There was a small table by the window, the door to their balcony beside it. The queen sized bed, covered in a brown comforter with at least five decorative pillows against the headboard, stood proudly in the center of the room, flanked by dark brown end tables with small wooden lamps. There was a white rug under it, a television mounted to the wall at the end of the bed, and a tan loveseat off to the side.

The moment the door closed behind them, Zane looked at Ty with a raised eyebrow. "Why did you go along with it?"

"Why not? We were just going to sleep in one bed anyway. And if people are going to assume, why not take advantage of it?"

Zane shook his head, but he was smiling.

"Would you have rather I asked for a room with two singles?" Ty asked, after taking the bags from Zane. He was moving around the room, putting their files and notes on the small table, taking their toiletry bags out of their bags and putting them on the white linoleum counter in the bathroom. He wasn't looking at Zane, and took his silence as irritation.

"Oh absolutely not. If we can have a larger bed, I want the larger bed."

"Then why do you care if I went along with her assumption or not?"

Zane walked up to Ty, grabbed his arms, and waited until he looked at him. Ty was able to see the laughter in Zane's eyes, the soft smile directed at him.

"Oh," Ty said, letting out a huff of self deprecating laughter. "Never mind."

Zane leaned forward, kissed Ty, and moved away again, allowing Ty to resume his unpacking. "Exactly. I didn't care that you did it, I just wondered why. I don't know how much surveillance we're under on these assignments, I didn't know how covert you wanted to be."

Ty shrugged. "Like I said the other day, Burns really just lets me go on these. The FBI and the government in general can't fund this sort of job, not really, but they still need to be done. So I get a basic file, and the name of a place to go. Other than that, I'm really left on my own."

Zane nodded, not really liking that. He didn't like the idea that Ty was left to his own devices, especially since it seemed like he meant that he had no backup, no contact with anyone else, while on these jobs. He didn't like the danger that that put Ty into.

"Good to know," Zane said, a little tightly. He shook himself mentally, and watched Ty as he continued around the room. What else he had to do, Zane wasn't sure, but he would gladly watch his lover do whatever it was he had to. "Not that it would have really mattered, it's not like we've never fucked on the job before."

Ty laughed. "And I didn't intend to stop now."

Finally, Ty stopped moving, happy with the room, and happy with where he had put everything. "What do you want to do now?"

Zane looked down at his watch and shrugged. "I want to get some things to put our files and notes around the room, but other than that I'm happy to take your lead."

"Okay, we can get your supplies, get you food, and then settle in for the night. We'll get going with more in the morning."

Zane nodded. "Sounds good to me."

With a responding nod, Ty walked over to Zane and put his arms around his neck. He pressed their lips together, the kiss speaking of wanting to be close, wanting to have just a moment to themselves, and then he broke away, content to hold Zane and to be held by Zane for a moment. Sometimes, he just needed a moment before going again.

"Are you okay?" Zane asked softly, his nose pressed against Ty's cheek.

"Yeah," Ty responded, his voice the same gentle tone as Zane's.

Ty stayed where he was for another few seconds, then sighed. He knew they needed to get moving. So he pressed a kiss to Zane's neck and moved away.

"Let's go get your supplies."

…

Despite the intention of taking the night and getting to more work in the morning, when the two arrived back at their room, Zane began spreading their information around the room. At the store, he had picked up a cork board, push pins, labels, and string to help arrange the information in a way that might help them visually. It would have been better if he had more space, or wasn’t worried about damaging the walls, but he would work with what they had.

Once the pictures of the murdered women were up on the board and labeled with their names and ages, Zane unboxed the printer he had decided would be helpful. He needed to have more information printed out so that it could be added to his board; a larger picture of Linda Johnson’s husband, a photo of the house where the original crime happened, a photo of where Mr. Johnson was currently living, obituaries of Linda Johnson, the women who had initially died, and all of the women who had died since, and the newspaper article detailing the original crime.

“You’re getting right to work aren’t you?” Ty asked from the end of their bed, where he had been watching Zane as he worked.

Zane looked over at him, startled by the sudden question. “Yeah, I guess I am. I didn’t really mean to.”

Ty nodded and stood. If Zane was going to start working, he might as well help out. “What are you starting with?”

“Organizing the information we already have in a visual way.”

“What are you going to do after that?”

Zane stared up at the board, his fingers hovering over his keyboard as he thought over Ty’s question. “Find a connection.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Ty said, rolling his eyes, but walking over to the board to look at it anyway. “That is the logical next step.”

“Mhm,” Zane agreed, noncommittally. Just by the sound, Ty knew he was no longer paying him any attention.

For a while, the two of them worked in silence. Zane typed away, getting the information they needed and posting it to the board when he had it. Ty went back and forth between reading the file that Burns had put together and staring at the board every time Zane added something new. There wasn’t much of anything he hadn’t already seen or read, but there was a chance something would click differently.

Which was the whole point in Zane’s board, which was something Ty was grateful for. The work Zane had already put in made the entire set up much more organized than how his normally worked. He had never gone out and bought a cork board before.

“This is everything we have,” Zane said after a while, moving past Ty to put a final paper up on the board.

Everything Zane had set out to find was now on the board, staring them in the face. There were pictures from the various crime scenes, and pictures of murder weapons, and pictures of the places themselves. There were pictures of the women from their lives, the ones that Burns had provided for the most part, connected to their obituaries. At the center of it all were pictures of the Johnsons, their home, and the eventual crime scene it would become. 

Visually, it all looked like a jumbled mess, the papers overlapping in some places and centimeters of cork board peeking through in others, but for what it was, it was exceptionally well organized. 

“So, do you see anything?” Ty asked, looking over at Zane.

The two of them stood close together in front of the cork board, their shoulders barely touching when they stood still, and pressing tightly together when they moved. For a moment, they both just stared, hoping to see something that they hadn’t already.

“Well,” Zane started, “They all look fairly similar.”

“All of the victims?” Ty asked, tilting his head to the side. They all had dark brunette hair, fairly thin noses, and heart shaped faces. “I see it. Were they all picked because they look like someone?”

Zane pointed to the other woman on the board, Linda Johnson. “They all look like her.”

“Her husband was ruled out as the killer, and he’s still alive. These murders were all done by Linda Johnson herself. We know that much for sure, we just don’t know why.”

“Right, I know. What I’m saying is all of these women look like Linda Johnson, and they were killed by Linda Johnson, who we have sort of labeled as a woman in white. They might have all had a connection to her husband.”

“Ah, I see. My assumption would be that these women were killed for revenge against Mr. Johnson. If this is a woman in white situation, then these women might have been killed because they all had a sexual relationship with Mr. Johnson. Linda likely saw these women as her competition, even though she was already dead.”

“More likely her replacements. They look just like her.”

“I can see how that would piss someone off.”

“But she was already angry. Her husband cheated on her, so when she died she became a spirit instead of moving on.” Zane paused, cocking his head. “So how do we stop her?”

“Salt and burn her bones is always the first option. But, since she’s been around so long, that might have already been tried. We might have to prepare to get into contact with her.”

“And do what?” Zane asked incredulously, looking at Ty with irritation and confusion.

“I don’t know. Talk to her? We’re going to have to see her to get any more clues as to what will work to get rid of her. Sometimes spirits just need an apology.”

“You’re joking. You think this woman just wants an apology? She’s recently killed six women.”

“She was wronged and she wants revenge,” Ty responded with a shrug. “We’ll figure that part out as we go along. But I think before we try anything else on that front, we should try to talk with Mr. Johnson. I have a feeling he’s fairly involved in this.”

“It is odd that this all started happening when he moved from his home to that assisted living residence. She would have had all of this time to have gone after these women, but she waited until he wasn’t around.”

“Glad to see we’re on the same page.” Ty reached out his hand and took Zane’s in his. “Do you see anything else?” he asked.

Ty was sincerely hoping Zane said no. They had already had a long day, he was ready to sprawl out in their hotel bed, watch some crappy television, and eventually fall asleep.

Zane sighed. “No. Even though I wish I did.”

“I know,” Ty said with a nod and a squeeze to Zane’s hand. “We’ll come back to it in the morning. We might think of something between now and then.”

Zane nodded and turned to Ty. “I feel like my eyes are about to fall out of my head.”

Ty smiled. “Then we should give them a break, they need to stay where they are to be of any use.”

“Ha ha,” Zane said, leaning forward and kissing Ty. It was a quick kiss, just a momentary press of their lips together, but it had them both sighing. Zane felt like he gained back a little bit of his depleted energy just with the press alone. He wondered how much better he would feel if he and Ty did more than that.

Ty pressed his lips to Zane’s again, then smiled at him, the look turning mischievous quickly.

Zane was expecting Ty to do something sexual, press him against the wall and grind against him, undo Zane’s pants and slip his hand inside either to wrap around Zane’s cock or tease a finger against his hole, drop to his knees right there and blow him. In seconds, so many ideas of what that grin could mean for Zane, for their evening, zipped through Zane’s mind and set his expectations. When Ty opened his mouth, the words shattered Zane’s expectations and stunned him completely.

“I’ll race you to getting ready for bed,” Ty said, his words coming out in a rush, and then immediately took off, getting out of his clothes and under the covers quicker than Zane had ever seen him do so.

Zane stood where Ty had left him, his jaw on the floor, his cock half hard. He didn’t think Ty knew what had crossed Zane’s mind, but Zane would be getting him back for it regardless. The night was still young afterall.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey Ty, I think I have something," Zane called out from the main room.

Ty nodded to himself, and wrapped a towel around his waist. He was in the bathroom, had just stepped out of the shower that Zane had left him to about ten minutes before. He had planned to shave, brush his teeth, and possibly get dressed before joining Zane, but if Zane had found something, then Ty could come back.

And besides, Ty thought with a grin, he didn't want to miss a chance to fluster Zane.

When Ty walked out into the main room, Zane was studiously looking down at his computer. There was a crease between his brows that Ty wanted to smooth away, and after a few seconds, Zane’s fingers flew across the keyboard. Ty knew that Zane knew he had walked in, Zane’s instincts were too good for him not to, especially when he was expecting it.

So Ty grinned and said, “What did you find?”

Zane looked up from his laptop, his fingers going still, and his face freezing with his mouth open to start talking. He was shocked to see so much of Ty, so much of his flushed, damp skin on display when he had been expecting him to be fully dressed and ready to go. Ty could practically hear the gears in Zane’s head working over time as he worked to take in the sight, and probably decide whether they could afford another roll in the sheets.

It took mere moments for Zane to come to the conclusion that they didn’t have time. Ty could see him make the decision, and wanted to laugh when that decision meant Zane shifted around in his seat.

Ty lifted an eyebrow in question.

“Uh, the house that the Johnsons lived in, it’s, uh, up for sale. They’re having an open house today.”

“Amazing timing for us, huh? You want to go check it out? Pretend we’re looking to buy so we can stake out the place?”

Zane nodded, his eyes roving over Ty. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Will it give us anything though? They will have cleaned the house up for the open house.”

Ty shrugged. He felt as the towel around his waist began to slip, but he decided not to do anything about it. It slipped down another inch, putting another inch of his skin on display.

The look on Zane’s face was one of a man feeling utmost regret, and Ty was getting close to no longer being able to hold back his laughter. Zane was so easy, it was definitely one of the many things he loved about the man.

“I’ll go get ready,” Ty said, turning to head back into the bathroom.

The moment he was behind the closed door, he let out the laughter he had been holding back. Zane heard him, if his own laughter was anything to go by, and that just made the whole thing that much funnier. If Zane didn’t get Ty back later, Ty would reward him for the resistance he had put up, and the joy he had brought Ty. But that could only happen after they had gotten some actual work done.

…

The driveway to the house was full when Ty and Zane pulled up, so Ty knew he was going to have to park the Bronco on the street, whether he wanted to or not. He idled in front of the driveway, looking up and down the street, and decided it was going to have to do. He hoped they wouldn’t be inside long enough for any damage to come to her.

Zane laughed from the passenger side, practically watching the thoughts as they were formed in Ty’s head.

“It isn’t funny Zane,” Ty grumbled as they stepped out.

The sound of the doors shutting echoed around them.

“Of course not Ty.”

Ty glared at Zane, but didn’t answer the comment. Instead, he went around to the back of the Bronco. He rummaged through the duffle he kept back there until he found what he needed, slipping the EMF reader into his pocket as smoothly as he could.

“What did you just put into your pocket?” Zane asked, coming up beside Ty to peer into the duffle.

If Zane was surprised to see the bag full of shotgun shells, an old book, and a large canister of rock salt, he didn’t act like it, and didn't ask any questions. To Ty, that just showed how well he was adjusting to this kind of work. A shot of pride soared through Ty’s chest at the idea.

“An EMF reader.”

Zane cocked his head in question. “That was talked about in the reports.”

“Yeah, we’ll scan the house, and it’ll alert us to any supernatural presence.”

“How are we going to scan the entire house?”

Ty grinned. “Ask to go to the bathroom.”

“Alright then,” Zane said, his eyebrows furrowed.

“You’ll see,” Ty said, clapping Zane on the shoulder.

The two turned away from the Bronco, Ty locking it up, and walked toward the house. It was a nice looking two story, the outside done in gray siding with a brick accent wall. There was plenty of landscaping in front of the house and down at the end of the driveway, Ty could tell it had been lovingly taken care of, and still was. 

“Welcome!” a young woman said from the doorway of the house, watching them approach. “You’re here for the open house?”

“Of course,” Ty drawled, quickly turning a smile on the woman.

The woman in front of them practically melted at the smile, Zane rolled his eyes.

“Then come in! There are refreshments in the kitchen and the current owner is answering questions in the living room. Go ahead and explore first though, if you want to.”

Both Ty and Zane nodded at her, walking through the door and right past her. Ty could feel her eyes still on him, and part of him wanted to grab Zane’s hand because of it. He had started it though, so he kept his hand to himself.

When they had walked further away from the woman, and could hear the murmur of other people talking but couldn’t pull out actual words, Ty stopped Zane with a hand on his arm. “We’re going to have to go check the upstairs first, then figure it out from there. I didn’t expect the owner to be here.”

Zane shook his head; they hadn’t thought about anyone besides Linda Johnson and her husband.

Ty turned toward the staircase, heading up them as he pulled the EMF reader out of his pocket. He turned it on, and it lit up to signify it was on and working.

The two of them made quick work of the upstairs, wandering down the hallway, into the bathroom, and checking the bathrooms. As they walked, the lights at the top of the EMF reader fluctuated, but not enough to tell them if they were getting any closer to anything. By the time they had checked every place besides the master bedroom, they hadn’t found anything.

“Last room,” Zane muttered, watching the EMF reader in Ty’s hands as he walked into the bedroom. The longer this went on, the more Zane wanted to rationalize and find a way that Ty and Richard Burns had been pulling his leg this entire time. 

After searching almost an entire floor of a supposedly haunted house and finding nothing, Zane was more willing to believe that the EMF reader was just a toy, the files had been faked, and Ty was lying through his teeth because...well Zane didn’t really know the because. He just knew that his rational mind couldn’t deal with all of this.

Ty took to the perimeter of the room, going in circles as he walked every inch of the room. The EMF reader was doing the same thing it had been doing the entire time; flashing and making noises that said it was working, not that it was picking anything up. It was beginning to make Ty wonder if they had come to the wrong conclusion somewhere. Maybe the house wasn’t where they were going to figure anything else out, despite it being the place of Linda Johnson’s death.

About two feet from the large bay window, and about a foot from the end of the bed, the EMF reader began to wail. Ty looked back at Zane to find him staring, his eyes comically wide. He hadn’t been expecting it to work.

Ty turned, looking around him. He quickly turned the EMF reader off, so that it wouldn’t alert the people downstairs to anything weird happening upstairs. They probably had just a few minutes before someone else would come up, Ty didn’t need to call them up here before then, before they could find anything.

In front of Ty was the king sized, master bed, covered in a light blue comforter and blue and gold pillows artfully arranged near the headboard. Under the bed, there was a white rug. Ty looked under his feet, realizing there was a pile of rugs there too. It looked okay for the room, but it still struck Ty as odd that they would have so many rugs in the room, whether they were purposefully arranged or not.

Ty stuck the EMF reader into his pocket, and crouched down. He was standing in the center of a circle rug that looked like it was meant to match the white rug beneath the bed. It was obvious though, that the rugs had been bought at very different times. The one under the bed had signs of aging, a slight discoloration, runs and loose threads, and deep indents from the bed. The rug under Ty’s feet had none of those things.

“Does this rug seem off to you?” he asked Zane, fiddling with the edge of it.

Zane shrugged. “Does it seem off to you?”

“Yeah, it’s not as old as the one that it supposedly matches.”

Ty picked up the corner of the rug, and was surprised to see a perfect white circle ingrained into the wood flooring. Ty bent down and ran his finger across the line, feeling the grit of what had once been there, what had been so imperfectly cleaned away. When he looked at his finger, he was unsurprised to find salt crystals.

“Do you know what this means?” Ty asked Zane, holding his finger up for Zane to see.

“Yeah,” Zane breathed.

“Now, why would there be a perfect salt ring right here? Do the current Johnsons know they have a ghost problem?”

“I guess we have to ask.”

“We’re going to have to go see Mr. Johnson. I was kind of hoping to avoid it.”

Zane’s eyebrows knit together, a thought crossing his mind. He walked to the bay window, crouched down, and imitated Ty’s movement as he ran his finger along the edge of the wood. He wasn’t surprised, not really, when his finger came back covered in salt.

Zane showed his finger to Ty, getting a nod in response.

“Now what?” Zane asked.

“We have to go talk to Mr. Johnson, but I’m going to have to talk to Burns about how he wants us to run that. We need to know whether we can go in FBI or if we need to come up with a convincing enough story to get us in the door to visit.”

“And while we’re here?”

Ty shrugged. “Get some free food, maybe listen to some stories about the house. You never know what could be helpful.”

Zane nodded, and motioned for Ty to take the lead out of the room.


	6. Chapter 6

Zane walked up to the counter, his badge on display before the man behind the computer could say anything to him or Ty. “We need to speak with Mr. Johnson,” he said, his voice level but gruff enough that the man in front of him should know better than to try to deny him what he wanted.

“Mr. Johnson? What does the FBI need with Mr. Johnson?” the man asked anyway, his eyebrows knitting together and his hand going to the phone on the desk.

“We believe he has information that may prove helpful with an ongoing investigation.”

“ _ Mr. Johnson? _ ” the man asked again. “You know that he’s, like, eighty years old, right?”

Zane just nodded.

“Alright, whatever,” the man said with a sigh. “But if you two upset him, I’m calling security, no matter your guns or muscles or jurisdiction.”

A few minutes later, after they had gotten the room number for Mr. Johnson and were headed to talk to him, Ty snickered behind Zane. “He really didn’t care about you trying to be all alpha male at all.”

“I’m taking it as he cares about the people who live here.”

“It could be that,” Ty gave him, much too quickly. “Or, it could be that you’re not as threatening as you like to think you are.”

Zane glared at Ty. “I’ve threatened plenty of people into doing what I wanted.”

“Did they really feel threatened though? Or did they just pity you for trying?”

“Whatever Ty,” Zane dismissed, rolling his eyes. He would get back at Ty later, for now, they were outside of Mr. Johnson’s room.

And Ty wouldn’t fucking stop laughing.

Zane knocked on the door, shooting Ty another glare, which of course made him laugh more.

“Mr. Johnson?” Zane asked, his voice still the commanding one he had used at the front desk, but with less gravel. He was expecting less hassle from the man behind this door.

“Who are you?” Mr. Johnson shouted from inside, his question one in anger, not just confusion.

Zane pinched the bridge of his nose. No one wanted to be easy today apparently.

“It’s the FBI Mr. Johnson, we’re here to ask you a few questions.”

The door opened suddenly in front of Zane, and he came face to face with the glare of an old man that was nearly his own height. He had no hair, and even Zane could see the cataracts in his eyes, but his size was still imposing.

“What the fuck does the FBI want with me?” he asked, looking Ty and Zane over. By his continued scowl, and low growl, Zane could tell that he wasn’t impressed with either of them.

“Mr. Johnson, if you’ll let us in, we just have a few questions to ask you about an ongoing investigation.”

“Do you see me boy? How do you think I could be involved with an ongoing investigation?”

Under any other circumstances, Zane would have agreed. But he knew this situation, knew it was a bit older than what most would call ongoing.

“Will you please let us in Mr. Johnson?” Zane tried again.

Mr. Johnson looked the two of them over again, and shook his head. He opened the door to them though, and trusted them to close it and to make their own way inside as he walked back to the recliner that he must have been sitting in before they came knocking at his door.

Besides the recliner, there was a matching loveseat, a coffee table, and a flatscreen TV in the living area. Both Ty and Zane took a seat on the loveseat.

“So, what questions do the FBI have for me?” Mr. Johnson asked, his attention now stretched between the two of them and the TV that was currently playing some old, black and white western.

“Well, Mr. Johnson, we’re actually here to talk to you about your wife.”

“My wife?” Mr. Johnson asked, panic stretching across his face. “Has something happened to my wife? Why wasn’t I notified?”

“Not your current wife, Mr. Johnson,” Zane said quickly, his hands out in front of himself to placate Mr. Johnson.

Mr. Johnson settled back into his recliner and turned to look at the TV again. “Then I don’t know what sort of questions you would have.”

“We’re talking about Linda, if that brings anything back.”

Mr. Johnson shot Zane a withering glare. “I don’t have dementia, boy.”

Zane put his hands up again, his mouth open to placate and try again, but Ty beat him to it.

“What happened to Linda on July 28, 1964 Mr. Johnson?” Ty asked, his voice emotionless.

Mr. Johnson looked at them in panic once again, but this was a different panic. This one went into his eyes, casting a haunted look over them. This one was all about how tense his entire body was, how blank the rest of his face was. “You’ve read the reports.”

Ty nodded. “We have read them, but we would like to hear what happened from you.”

Mr. Johnson sighed. “You two might be FBI, but I doubt you have any interest, or jurisdiction, in what happened that day. That is well behind us all, settled by the local law enforcement.”

“And you got away.”

“Because I didn’t do anything, and that was proven.”

“And if we were to reopen the case?”

Mr. Johnson shrugged. If this line of questioning kept on, they weren’t going to be getting anything else out of him.

“Mr. Johnson,” Ty started, leaning closer to the man and lowering his voice. “We would really appreciate it if you cooperated with us.”

The old man waved a hand at them.

Ty rolled his eyes. “Fine. Mr. Johnson, we have recently been to your home. Why is there a ring of salt in your bedroom and why is there salt on the window sills?”

Mr. Johnson shot another glare at Ty. “How the hell have you two been into my house?” he hissed.

“Open house,” Ty responded, quick and careless.

“Then you had no fucking right to go messing around with that shit.”

“We know more about it than you think we do, Mr. Johnson. It’s the real reason we’re here. Yes, we are FBI, and actual FBI, not two men with fake badges who use them to get into places that they don’t belong. And yes, this is an official assignment. Have you been following the recent string of murders?”

Mr. Johnson shook his head, his face still stubbornly blank, despite the small outburst.

“There have been six women total, all killed since you have been living here. They’re of all different ages, but all look incredibly similar to your late wife. On the surface, it looks almost like there’s no connection between them at all, but if you dig in far enough you find connections to you.”

“Who are they?”

Ty grabbed the envelope he had brought with them for this exact reason, and handed it over to Mr. Johnson.

Mr. Johnson took the envelope in shaking hands. He opened the flap at the top, and gently pulled the photographs out. Both Ty and Zane knew what he would see as he looked through them. All women he had had a relationship with since Linda Johnson had passed away in 1964. More digging on Ty and Zane’s part found that not all of them were sexual or romantic relationships, one woman had been a nice neighbor that had helped the Johnsons with taking care of their yard when Mrs. Johnson had fallen ill, one woman had been cutting Mr. Johnson’s hair for the last few years. What had evidently mattered to Linda Johnson was the presence of a close relationship to her husband, not what kind it was.

All of the photographs of the women were nice photographs of them, Ty and Zane had made the executive decision when putting them together that it would just be cruel to give Mr. Johnson the photographs of the women after they had died.

“They’re all dead?” Mr. Johnson asked, his eyes shiny, his voice small and choked.

“Every one of them, sir,” Ty responded, his voice gentle and low.

“And you think Linda has something to do with it?”

“We do.”

Mr. Johnson closed his eyes. “Then she must have gotten out. You said you saw the salt circle and the lines of salt on the entryways? The circle was from the times we were able to get her caught. We kept her there for some time, but she always got out eventually. The windowsills were both to keep her in, as an added measure to the circle, and to keep her out, for when she got out and was rampaging.”

“Has she done harm to people before?”

“Yes. Every time she got out of the house she terrorized the town. But she never killed anybody.”

“Until now.”

Mr. Johnson nodded. “Until now. You boys think this has something to do with me being in here?”

“It could be that your wife isn’t keeping up with the guards, it could be that Linda is rampaging because you’re not there to control her or because she’s angry that your wife is the only one there. Or, she’s only just found out about these other women. We don’t really have a concrete reason for any of this, just what we think is going on.”

“Is my wife alright? Linda hasn’t tried to do anything to her?”

“Not so far.”

“You boys don’t forget about her during this investigation, you keep her safe,” Mr. Johnson asserted.

Ty nodded, and the room fell to silence for a moment, everyone thinking.

“You won’t be able to salt and burn her bones,” Mr. Johnson said after a moment, his expression thoughtful.

Ty nodded. “We wondered, sir.”

“I tried that one a long time ago, and she still kept coming. You boys have any other ideas of what to do with her?”

“Nothing concrete.”

Mr. Johnson nodded. “The best I can offer you is the ability to bring her here and trap her. She’s been visiting me every night since I moved here.”

“That may become part of the plan. We’ll keep looking for something, come back when we have an idea of what to do next.”

“I’m willing to help,” Mr. Johnson said, everything about him defeated. He looked back down at the pictures in his lap.

“Thank you for your time,” Zane said, standing from the couch, and offering his hand to Mr. Johnson.

It took a moment for him to realize what was happening, but eventually Mr. Johnson looked up and grasped Zane’s hand. When Ty offered his as well, he took it.

As he passed, Ty clapped a hand to Mr. Johnson’s shoulder. “You can keep those.”

Mr. Johnson nodded distractedly. He was no longer paying attention to them, or the western on his television. Everything in him was paying attention to the women smiling up at him from their photographs.

Ty and Zane left the room, and left the building in silence, knowing they had been given plenty more to work with than either of them had been anticipating. When they got back into the Bronco, Ty looked to Zane before starting the engine.

“We’re going to be bringing him peace in multiple ways,” Ty said, his eyes locking on Zane’s.

Zane nodded. “He looked like he could use it.”

“It would be tough to have to do all of that to someone you loved. And it would be tough to have your dead wife showing up again.”

“Yeah,” Zane said, thinking back, unbidden, to his own wife. Becky hadn’t died in a way that would have brought her back like this, but he couldn’t imagine how he would have been affected if she had anyway. He didn’t want to think about all that she would have seen, how she would have reacted to the drugs and the drinking. How she would have reacted to Ty.

Zane shook himself, bringing his thoughts back to the present, back to Ty, back to this assignment. “What are the not concrete ideas you have?”

“To bring her peace. I wonder if we were there when she came to see Mr. Johnson, if we trapped her, and tried to talk to her, what would happen.”

“If she’s been going to Mr. Johnson every night since he’s been here, and had been around even before then, don’t you think that he would have tried to talk to her?”

Ty shrugged. “Not necessarily. If he were trying to keep his wife and possibly his family safe, he might not have wanted to try. And there’s also no way of knowing whether she can talk to him.”

“If she can’t talk to him, how is she going to talk to us?”

“I guess it’s not so much about talking to her. It’s about her coming face to face with what she’s done.”

“The current murders?”

“And her Tupperware Party guests.”

“You don’t think Mr. Johnson did it? You definitely sounded like it in there.”

Ty shrugged. “He could have just gotten away with it, but I don’t think so. If he really killed those women, he would be in prison, not an assisted living residence.”

“That’s true enough.” Zane said, nodding. “How are we supposed to bring her face to face with those murders then?”

“Try to talk to her.”

Zane sighed. “Alright, this is part of the plan that doesn’t really get planned, isn’t it?”

“Yup,” Ty said, popping the ‘p’ and looking supremely smug.

“Then why didn’t we talk through this part with Mr. Johnson? Talk to him about when to try to trap his dead wife?”

“Because he needed time to let those deaths sink in. He wasn’t ready.”

“Yeah, he wasn’t.”

“We brought news to him about women he had cared about dying at the hands of his dead wife, because of their relationship with him, no matter what it was. I can’t imagine going through that,” Ty said with a shake of his head.

Zane nodded. “I can’t either.” He paused. “What do we do now, then?”

“Well,” Ty said, smirking over at Zane, “I was thinking of getting you naked and causing a commotion at the motel.”

Zane’s breath caught at the words and he could feel what they were doing to the rest of him. “That sounds like a good idea.”

Ty started the engine, his smirk staying in place on his face as he shifted into gear and got them going. “Somehow that’s what I thought you would say.”


	7. Chapter 7

After parking the Bronco, Ty shut off the engine and looked over at Zane with an appraising expression. “I don’t think you should walk in there first.”

“Why's that?”

“That kid didn’t like you last time. He probably won’t have any better of an opinion of you now.”

Zane shrugged and got out of the Bronco.

When the two of them walked into the assisted living residence, Ty walked in first, an easy expression on his face and his duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

The same man from the first day was sitting at the front desk when they walked in. His eyes slithered right past Ty and landed on Zane, the irritation of seeing him again written clearly across his face. If it wasn’t a bad time, Ty would have started laughing. Instead, he walked up to the front desk and leaned on it, making sure there wasn’t room for Zane to come up beside him.

Ty smiled at the man. “We’re here to see Mr. Johnson again.”

“No flashing your badge and bossing me around this time?”

Ty had a sharp retort on his tongue, but he smiled around it instead of letting it loose. “Nope.”

The man stared at Zane for multiple moments before turning his eyes to Ty and nodding.

Without another word, the two of them walked themselves to Mr. Johnson’s room. It would be in their best interest to finish this job as quickly as possible, they needed to stay away from this place and the man’s eyes that were too close to thrown daggers.

Ty knocked on the door, waited just to hear movement from the other side, and walked in.

“Good evening gentlemen,” Mr. Johnson said to the two of them from his recliner.

Ty and Zane nodded to him, but didn’t say anything else. He was watching another western, and they had work to do.

Ty put his duffle down on the small dining table and opened it up. He grabbed out one of the canisters of table salt and handed it to Zane. “Dump a thick line of this along the windowsill. Go from the very edge of it, to maybe a centimeter from the other end. The window is going to be Linda’s entry point. We’ll close the line off when she comes in, so leave the canister on the sill. Then line the entire doorway, end to end. We don’t want her to be able to get in or out there.”

“What if there’s a draft that comes under the door?”

“Make sure the line you leave is very thick.”

Zane nodded and went to do as he was told.

As Zane closed off the entrances, Ty took out his second canister of salt and his extra shotgun shells. He began pouring the salt into the shells, making sure they were filled and sealed before lining them up along the edge of the table. Once Zane was done lining the entryways, he showed him how and then handed the supplies off. It wasn’t the ideal moment, but Ty wanted to make sure that this was something Zane could do on his own.

If Ty thought about it, the entire situation wasn’t ideal. If it had been up to him, and he had known beforehand that Burns was going to decide to send them into these assignments together, Ty would have been teaching Zane these things long before now. He definitely wouldn’t have been learning this while waiting for the spirit to show up. There was nothing he could do now, but Zane would definitely be getting more than a two day crash course and some relevant files for the next one.

Ty watched as Zane carefully and methodically filled the shotgun shells. By the time Ty told him he could stop, there were about two dozen across the table. They were unlikely to need that many, and definitely wouldn’t need them alongside the additional dozen that were already ready in Ty’s duffle and the ones Ty had already put in the two shotguns.

“You took to that quickly,” Ty pointed out.

Zane shrugged. “It’s not that different.”

“You two said you’re real FBI?” Mr. Johnson said from his recliner.

Ty turned to face the man. He had sort of forgotten that he was sitting there, what with him not speaking and Ty being more focused on getting ready for Linda Johnson and watching Zane. “Yes sir, we are.”

“How does this work then? I said last time that this doesn’t seem like something the FBI would have jurisdiction over.” Mr. Johnson paused, his eyes narrowing in thought. “Where are you two boys from?”

“We’re with the Baltimore office.”

“Then shouldn’t there be someone else here, even if the FBI has jurisdiction?”

Ty shrugged. “We go where we’re told to.”

“You still haven’t answered the question.”

Ty had planned on using the additional questions as a cover, but Mr. Johnson was too perceptive. “I don’t know the inner workings of this, sir, but there are higher ups that keep their attention on jobs like this. When there’s one that needs to be fixed, they bring in the necessary agents to figure out what’s going on and collect some information. Then they bring in field agents to take care of the problem.”

“It’s as easy as that?”

“I suppose,” Ty said with a shrug.

Mr. Johnson grunted noncommittally and turned back to his television.

"What now?" Zane asked, putting his now idle hands down on the table in front of him.

Ty shrugged. "Now we wait."

Over the next couple hours, that was exactly what they did. Ty kept his attention more or less focused on the window, but didn't mind when Mr. Johnson asked them questions or told them stories. For a little while, the two of them even joined the man in watching his western. It brought Ty back to being a child, when the same sorts of movies played on the television at home, his father and grandfather glued to the screen even if they'd seen the movie before, and Ty and Deuce running around pretending to shoot at criminals and proclaiming to the adults they were going to be cowboys when they got older.

If nothing else, the horses had ruined that dream for Ty, but as the three of them watched, he wondered if Zane had ever had those same dreams. He'd definitely look sexy as hell in the getup, whether it had been a dream or not.

At around 10:30, the soft wall lights flickered and so did the image on the television.

Ty stood and wiped his hands down his jeans. He looked at Zane with a wry smile. "It's showtime."

Zane nodded and stood up, going to grab their supplies from the table.

Mr. Johnson sighed. "She's right on time."

In the space of a blink, Linda Johnson entered the room. She was a young, short woman, her brunette hair pulled back away from her face. She wore a knee length, blue dress, and small heels. Every inch of her was the stereotypical housewife, besides the bullet hole at her temple.

Zane, positioned at the window, filled in the last bit of salt, trapping Linda in the room.

"Hello darling," Linda Johnson said, the venom dripping from her words. Her full attention was on her husband. "How are you tonight?"

"Well, my love," Mr. Johnson responded, waving his hand at Ty and Zane. "As you can see I have company."

"Yes, company that thinks they know how to get rid of me. How cute. Have you told them that you've already tried?"

Ty winced at the implication, at his assumption of just how pissed off that must have made the woman.

Mr. Johnson nodded. "We just want to bring you peace. Don't you think you deserve it after all this time?"

"I always have, but you didn't always agree. Did you?"

"I agree, I might not have been the best husband to you-"

Linda’s face went stony as she glared at her husband. There was a sudden wind in the room that began tossing things around. A glass from the table shattered against the wall, magazines and books fluttered around, losing pages. "Might not?” Linda asked. “ _ Might  _ not? You were with different women nearly every night, you came home late and drunk all of the time, and you never once admitted to it or apologized! Not until that last day.”

Mr. Johnson hung his head. “I was wrong about that too. Please, calm down. We can talk about this.”

“I am as calm now as you forced me to be then,” Linda said, the wind picking up her hair and her dress. She looked like a nightmare. “You were very wrong. I deserved to have as much freedom as you did. You left me alone all of the time, and then expected me to just be a happy little wife about it. I never was but I couldn’t leave. Not like you could.”

“What do you want then Linda? What will bring you the peace you deserve? What will stop you from killing all the women that were ever in my life?”

“You know about the murders.”

“Of course. Why do you think they’re here?” Mr. Johnson asked, lifting his hand to Ty and Zane again.

Linda raised a single eyebrow, her attention finally falling on Ty and Zane and their weapons. “You brought them in here? Did you decide that you couldn’t do the job yourself anymore so you had to rely on someone else?”

Ty moved forward, intending to offer help or an explanation, but the moment he opened his mouth to say something, Linda swiped her hand through the air and Ty went flying until he hit the wall. Everyone in the room heard the thud of him connecting with it.

Everything in Zane told him to forget Linda, to forget Mr. Johnson, and just run to Ty, but when he moved, Linda looked at him with a menacing glare. If he went any further, he would get the same treatment as Ty.

But he couldn’t just let his partner suffer, so Zane called out, “Ty? Are you okay?”

Ty groaned but said nothing else. Zane didn’t like the lack of response, but his hands were tied by the angry ghost in front of him.

“Linda,” Mr. Johnson said, his voice soft as the wind nearly drowned out his words. “I didn’t bring them in, the murders brought them here. You know I was content to have you come to me. But you’ve killed people.”

Linda scoffed. “You’ve been afraid of me for years.”

“Yes. I’ve been afraid that you would hurt me, afraid that you would hurt the ones I love. But, I was also afraid that you would leave me. I still love you Linda, and I will for the rest of my life.”

Linda’s body flickered and she looked down at herself. Her eyebrows were scrunched in confusion when she looked back up. “What’s happening to me?” she asked in a small voice. As her body flickered, the wind began to die down.

Zane took the opportunity that the confusion afforded him and rushed over to Ty’s side. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but he couldn’t just leave Ty there.

When he got to Ty, Ty blinked up at him, a soft grunt of pain making its way through his lips.

“Are you okay?” Zane whispered.

Ty nodded, looking back to the Johnsons.

“I imagine you’ve gotten what you wanted, my love.”

“Mrs. Johnson,” Ty started, interjecting himself into the conversation. There was pain clear in his voice and he winced as he tried to sit up. He breathed heavily, gripping his gun tight in his hands as he used it to help prop up his body. “You already know that we can’t take you out the more traditional and violent ways. So we need to know, what is it that we can do to help you?”

Linda’s eyes flickered over to Ty, but went straight back to her husband. In Ty’s opinion, that single look answered his question.

“I’m sorry Linda,” Mr. Johnson said, his voice breaking. “Not a day has gone by that I haven’t missed you and felt held down by my own guilt. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better husband to you, I’m sorry that I hurt you then and continued to after you died. I love you my dear, I always will.”

Linda Johnson nodded, opened her mouth as if she were going to say something, and disappeared.

The room stayed silent for a few long moments. No one wanted to move or say anything, afraid that they weren’t out of danger yet.

“I think she’s gone, boys,” Mr. Johnson finally whispered, looking back at his television. In the soft light that it was casting over him, tears could be seen rolling down his face.

Ty got to his feet, Zane reaching out to help him as if Ty was a baby taking his first steps, and made his way back to Mr. Johnson. He reached out and squeezed the man’s shoulder. They weren’t close, and Ty didn’t know how to comfort him, but the moment felt like one where even an attempt at comfort was better than nothing.

“You think all she needed was to hear that you were sorry?” Zane asked, walking over to them slowly.

Mr. Johnson nodded. “I should have told her I was sorry years ago, would have been better than trying to get rid of her and then trapping her when I couldn’t. But,” he sighed, his words heavy and his shoulders slumping, “I never really thought to try to apologize. I didn’t think she would hear me out if I tried.”

Ty and Zane just nodded. It wasn’t their place to say anything, to try to analyze the things that could have been done before. No one needed to say that there were many women that could still be alive if Mr. Johnson had just apologized, everyone in the room was well aware.

“Well, I assume you boys will be off now?” Mr. Johnson asked after another few minutes of silence. He had wiped the tears off his face and had covered his sadness with a gruff exterior and a wall, but it was easy to tell that he would be deeply affected by this for a good while.

It was understandable that he didn’t really want Ty and Zane around to see him break.

“Unless you want help cleaning all of this up,” Ty said, waving his hand around the room. It was a mess from all of the things thrown around in Linda’s wind and the preventative measures they had put in place to help get rid of the spirit.

Mr. Johnson shook his head. “I’ll get it. Don’t you boys worry about it.”

Ty nodded, digging around in the front pocket of his jeans and producing a piece of paper that he handed to Mr. Johnson. “If there’s ever anything you need from us though, don’t worry about reaching out.”

Mr. Johnson nodded, and stood from his recliner. He put his hand out to Ty, shaking it firmly, before doing the same with Zane.

“I appreciate your help with the matter boys, but I will admit that I hope not to need to see you again.”

Ty laughed as he and Zane picked their things up from around the room. “We also hope not to see you again.”

Mr. Johnson followed them to the door, holding to the frame as they walked out. He gave them one final smile at the door. “You two drive safely.”

“We will,” the two of them said, and walked away.

They made it out of the building with little fuss, even though they could both feel the eyes of the man from the front desk on them as they walked out. As far as Zane was concerned, never needing to come back to this assisted living residence would be too early.

“You did well,” Ty said, bumping into Zane as they walked to the Bronco.

Zane nodded. “Thanks, but I don’t really feel like I did much of anything.”

“Sometimes that’s how these jobs go, there’s really only so much we can do.”

“Yeah, I can see that, but how do you deal with it? You don’t get the same level of closure with this sort of job.”

Ty shrugged and threw the duffle bag of supplies into the back of the Bronco. “It comes with the territory. Sometimes you just have to trust that everything’s okay again. With Linda we just have to trust that she got what she wanted and is now at peace. If not, I’m sure we’ll get a call.”

“I suppose,” Zane hedged. It was going to take him time to get on board with that sort of thing. It left him uneasy that Linda Johnson had just disappeared and they had no real way of knowing that she wouldn’t pop back up and continue murdering women her husband had been involved with. It left him uneasy that the end of this case wasn’t cut and dry.

The two of them got settled back in the Bronco, Ty behind the wheel. They were silent for the first few minutes of the drive back to the motel, but it was a good silence. The kind with no pressure, where Ty could drive and Zane could reach over and take Ty’s right hand in his as he did so.

“First thing in the morning we’ll grab our things and go home.” Ty said, turning to look at Zane with a wolfish grin. “No one needs to know we’re back for at least a couple days.”

Zane laughed. “Sounds like a plan to me. There’s just one thing I want to check out first, before we leave.”

“Which is?”

Zane smiled softly over at Ty and stroked his thumb over Ty’s hand. “I’ll tell you about it in the morning.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this is the chapter where the dogs are mentioned and the sexual assault is alluded to

"It's morning," Ty told Zane, stretching his back as they lay in their hotel bed. 

Zane's head was on Ty's chest and one of Zane's hands was resting on his lower stomach, mindlessly drawing patterns. Neither of them had been awake long, choosing to sleep in and enjoy being with one another for a little longer instead of jumping right out of bed to get back on the road. They were warm and comfortable and happy to just be with one another, but that didn't mean that Zane's cryptic "I'll tell you in the morning" hadn't been driving Ty up the wall since he had said it.

Ty was happy to stay in bed for a while longer, but he wanted to know what Zane had in mind to do before they went home. And since it didn't seem like too serious of a secret, Ty was happy to push.

Zane drew a final circle on Ty's lower stomach before lifting his head and looking at Ty. "I want to go to the college campus."

"Michigan State's?"

"Yeah."

Ty reached a hand up and ran a finger down Zane's cheek. They were both feeling and being soft that morning, Ty was enjoying it and feeling the need to bask in it. "Any particular reason, Lone Star?"

"Yeah," Zane said with a smirk.

Ty poked at the corner of Zane's lips. "What's the smirk for?"

"They have a building called Beaumont Tower."

Ty rolled his eyes, but felt a surge of warmth spread through him. Of course this was the reason Zane wasn't quite ready to head home. "So you want to go see Beaumont?"

"Yeah," Zane breathed, before pressing a kiss to Ty's chest. "There's also an urban legend associated with it that I found while doing my research for this assignment."

"And what is it?"

"Well, the legend goes that if two people kiss in the shadow of the tower, or at the stroke of midnight, they’re destined to be together forever. There's also something about it making you a 'true Spartan' but-" Zane trailed off and shrugged as best as he could, given the way he was laying.

Ty smiled, laughing a little, the sound caught between being genuine and nervous. They could go see the tower, add another instance to their inside joke, and kiss in the shadow of the tower. While they were there, they could wander around the campus, hand in hand if they wanted to, and just enjoy themselves. It would be a good day. But with the story behind kissing at Beaumont, Ty's stomach tightened. He knew Zane was only reluctantly believing in some of this stuff because of the last assignment, but this wasn't something to be messed around with, not in his opinion. So, what did that mean for Zane to bring it up?

"You've gone still, so I know you're worrying." Zane flattened his hand against Ty's stomach and dropped another kiss to his chest. "I'm not proposing, not yet at least, but I wouldn't be opposed to spending the rest of my life with you. I love you Ty."

"I love you too Zane," Ty responded, giving Zane a small smile. "Let's go see this tower."

…

Ty and Zane took their time wandering around the campus of Michigan State University. They walked, hand in hand, down the sidewalks and between the buildings, commenting on the trees and the various art pieces and the building styles that depended on the part of campus. There were plenty of people around; it was a Saturday so there were families walking and riding bikes, couples strolling, and students wandering. Time and time again they passed people walking dogs, and try as they might to avoid them, the dogs latched onto Ty and tried to drag their owners to him.

Every time, Zane held back a laugh as Ty glared at the dogs and their owners apologized profusely.

Zane avoided where he knew Beaumont Tower to be, instead making this a nice stroll instead of a trip to a predetermined destination. He wanted the time to just be out with Ty, the time to hold hands and walk around as a couple like they couldn't back home. The time to leave would come eventually, but Zane had no problem taking advantage of their ability to be somewhere else and finally be able to proudly be  _ them _ .

Eventually, the two began meandering back toward the northern part of campus, back to the older buildings and the brick sidewalk. They were walking in front of what a small green sign said was Chittenden Hall, planning on crossing the road, when a small group of students stopped in front of them.

A young woman with dark hair under a beanie and wicked winged eyeliner pulled away from the group. She looked up at Ty and Zane with a steely determination in her blue eyes.

In that moment, Zane was more worried to hear what she had to say than he cared to admit.

"Hi, my name is Andi, and I'm guessing you're not students here or from here," she paused long enough for Ty and Zane to nod reluctantly. "Well, we're going around campus telling everyone the same thing: if you don't have to be here past dark, don't. It isn't safe."

Zane raised his eyebrows at the girl and turned to Ty. He had the same look on his face. 

"What makes you think we can't protect ourselves?" Zane asked, being careful to keep his tone light and questioning. He didn't need another situation like the one at the assisted living residence. 

Andi looked Ty and Zane up and down quickly. "I'm sure you can," she responded, her tone placating. "But what's going on here isn't something you can stop in a physical fight. Just take my word, there's some weird, dangerous shit happening on campus."

Ty straightened next to Zane. The girl's words had obviously caught his attention. "What kind of weird shit?"

Andi shook her head. "Just weird, take my word for it."

"If you wouldn't mind Andi, we'd like some examples."

Andi looked back at her friends, all of them clearly uncomfortable. It took them a moment of silently staring at one another, but eventually they all nodded.

Zane realized that they had probably faced quite a few people that laughed them off for the warning.

"Possession," Andi stated, keeping a critical eye on Ty and Zane.

Ty nodded. "What else?"

"You believe me?" Andi asked, narrowing her eyes, looking for a tell that Ty was pulling her leg.

"Yeah. What makes it possession Andi?"

Andi paused and looked back at her friends. They had all huddled closer, and the looks on their faces said they were just as suspicious as Andi. It was odd, and kind of funny, that either way the kids couldn't win. They either warned people and got laughed at, or the people believed them and they couldn't trust they were actually being believed.

"There's been a lot of screaming on campus, but that's not necessarily unnatural. Plenty of people have reported black plumes of smoke. Kids have said their friends are acting weird, not like themselves, and talking about violence and revenge. And then, of course, those same friends are showing up with black eyes."

Ty nodded. "Sure sounds like possession to me. Are there people looking into it or is it just happening?"

"We've been trying to, but this is kind of out of our depth."

"You deal with the occult though, right?" Ty asked, first to Andi, then her friends.

At the direct question, the small group of students who had been staying a few feet away before came right up to Ty, Zane, and Andi. Ty and Zane became enveloped, part of a circle of college kids.

"Yeah," Andi said, still acting as the voice of the group. "To varying degrees, we all do plenty of occult things."

"Good, so do we," Ty answered.

For a moment, no one in the group said a word. It was fairly obvious, by the twitching of eyebrows, the shifting of bodies, and the downward cast of mouths, that this group of young adults did not believe Ty.

"You two don't exactly look the type," Andi hedged after a moment.

Ty shrugged and pointed at Zane. "He wasn't, still isn't really. I dragged him into it. But, our type of occult is government sanctioned."

Zane wasn't sure why Ty was telling them these things, especially when that sentence worked to push the group a little bit further away from them.

Ty rolled his eyes. "None of you are going to get into trouble, especially not if you help us."

"No offense, sir," one of the other kids, a tall, athletic boy said. "I don't think we're worried about getting in trouble: we just don't believe you."

"That doesn't matter. Help us figure this out."

The students looked around at one another, considering Ty's words and proposition silently. They seemed to converse with one another without saying a word.

"Okay, fine," Andi said, sticking her hand out to Ty. "We'll give you any help that we can."

"Good, we're probably going to need it." Ty pulled a card from his pocket and handed it over to Andi. "That has every way of contacting us on it, use it as you see fit."

The students nodded, and the group of them disbanded. Ty turned Zane around, turning them both back to where they had come from.

"We'll come back for the tower," Ty said, his voice gruff and angry. "I need to call Burns."

Zane remembered, suddenly, the way that Ty had reacted when they had first been put on this assignment. He remembered the discomfort that had radiated off Ty, the questions that Burns wouldn't answer.

"You think Burns knew about this?" Zane asked as they walked. This was no longer the pleasant stroll they had been going on; Ty was now a man with a mission.

"I absolutely do. Linda Johnson might have needed to be dealt with, but someone else could have done it. You have to have high clearance to be put on assignments with demons."

"Why not tell us what we were actually getting into?"

"Probably figured I would still say no. If we're already here, we have less reason to deny the assignment."

"So Burns wanted us to find out about this on our own and then deal with it? What about information like what we got for the Linda Johnson case? And how could he have been sure we would find out about it?"

Ty shrugged. "He's never done this to me before, not with these assignments."

Zane looked over at Ty, taking in the stiffness of his jaw, the hard edge he could just see in the corner of Ty's eye. The man was understandably pissed; they were now in more danger, they had wasted time that could have been spent on this demon business, and Burns had used Ty and his willingness to do what Burns asked of him. Zane couldn't imagine what was going through Ty's head.

"I just need to get back to the Bronco so I can call him."

"Put him on speaker when you do."

"This isn't your fight Zane."

"If it hurts you and puts you in danger, it's always my fight."

Ty tightened his grip on Zane's hand for a moment, telling him wordlessly how much he appreciated the sentiment. Zane was well aware that he would not be part of the conversation with Burns, at least not until they were discussing the details of this new assignment, but he was okay with that. He knew Ty needed this more than he did.

When they got back to the car, Ty started it and pulled his phone out. Within seconds he was talking with Richard Burns.

“Demons, Dick? Really?” Ty asked, a hard edge to his voice. 

After pressing the speaker button, he put the phone down on the middle console. The two of them stared at it, as if they would see Richard Burns there instead of just hearing him, as they waited for the other man to respond.

“Ah, so you boys have figured out the real reason you’re in Michigan.”

“Why the fuck weren’t we told to begin with? Why send us off on a different case and hope that we found out about this one? We were ready to head home Dick.”

Zane idly wondered if Burns would ask for an explanation as to how they had found out about the case, and what they would tell him. It would be easy enough to say they overheard people talking about it at a restaurant, but would that be enough? Would that be a plausible reason?

Zane shook his head slightly to stop himself from spiralling down a line of questions that he couldn’t answer, and probably wouldn’t need to. Burns was unlikely to ask how they had found out about the Michigan State University demon problem, and if they did they would just have to have a good story ready.

“We couldn’t let anyone find out about this one.”

“Why not?” Ty growled down at the phone.

“Because the administration doesn’t want another scandal.”

Zane’s eyes widened in shock, and he whipped his head up to look at Ty. When they caught eyes, he mouthed, ‘what the fuck?’ at his partner.

Ty just shook his head. What other response was there?

Ty’s attention went back to the phone, his scowl pronounced. He was trying so hard to keep a level head, but the longer this conversation went, the harder he was finding it. “So you were just fine with covering up for them? That was a big part of the problem with their last scandal.”

“Yes, Tyler, I know.”

“And that’s it? You’re not going to even try to give me a reason as to why kids dying on campus should stay secret?”

“No. I expect the two of you to do your job and do it quietly. It will work out well for us and for the two of you.”

Ty sighed, loudly, and balled his hands into fists. Zane wanted to reach out to hold one, but with Ty in the mood he was in he didn’t think it would be welcome. “If this comes out, that kids dying was covered up by the administration and the cover up was sanctioned by the FBI, everyone will be fucked over. You and I both know it.” Ty paused, just long enough to grind his teeth together. “Send whatever information you have to us, we’ll get back to you when this is finished.”

Without another word, Ty hung up the call. Waves of tension were rolling off of his body. Every part of him looked tense, like he was holding himself still muscle by muscle.

Zane gritted his teeth. “They’re really doing this again? How long do they think this one will stay covered up?”

Ty shrugged. “Apparently it doesn’t matter. As long as it does.” With a sigh, Ty rearranged himself in the driver's seat and got them on their way out of the parking garage. “There isn’t much we can do about that, but we will make sure kids don’t die here. Until we get a lead from either Burns or Andi though, I say we go back to the hotel, pay for another couple of days, and fuck until we hear from someone.”

Zane let out a laugh, and reached out to grab Ty’s hand. “That sounds like a good plan to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose the setting of Lansing/East Lansing primarily because I was familiar with it and could give a bit more detail. The fact that I could subtly complain about stuff as a student/alumni was just a bonus really.


	9. Chapter 9

The second Ty and Zane were through the door to their room, Ty had Zane pressed up against the door, their lips smashed together, their hands wandering anywhere they could reach. It took mere moments for the buttons and zippers on each of their jeans to be undone, another few moments for two piles of jeans and underwear and shoes to appear on the floor.

Ty pushed Zane’s shirt up, wrapping his hands around Zane’s sides. “I want you to fuck me.”

Zane sighed, a happy, contented sound, and pressed his lips against Ty’s. This kiss was slow and sweet, a build up to something more. “You won’t find any objections here.”

“Good,” Ty placed a last, quick kiss on Zane’s nose and stepped away.

The two of them pushed their jackets off of their shoulders, letting them drop to join their other clothes. Two t-shirts followed suit seconds later.

For a moment, Ty and Zane stood stock still, staring at one another, their eyes roving up and down the other’s body, taking in the well known paths of muscles and scars. Ty was happy to have this moment just to stare; he would never get tired of being able to look at Zane, fully clothed or completely naked.

Zane caught Ty’s eye and smirked, an idea flitting through his mind. “You should sit down on the couch,” he said, nodding his head at the tan loveseat a few feet away from their bed.

Ty raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound like a direct way to get fucked.”

“You’ll enjoy what I have in mind,” Zane said, walking toward Ty and giving him a small shove to get him to go do what he told him to. “Get comfortable while I get the lube.”

When Zane came back out of the bathroom, lube in hand, Ty was sitting in the center of the loveseat, his cock in his hand. Zane gasped softly at the sight, a flash of arousal surging through his veins. He was immensely glad that he had already taken his pants off.

“I don’t think I said anything about starting without me,” Zane said, falling to his knees in front of the loveseat.

Ty’s hand stuttered in it’s movement. “You told me to get comfortable.”

“This wasn’t what I had in mind,” Zane said, reaching forward and wrapping his hand around Ty’s. 

For a moment, Zane guided Ty’s hand, jacking him slowly and methodically, watching as Ty began to breathe deeper. When it looked like Ty was really beginning to enjoy himself, Zane gave their hands one last squeeze, and pulled Ty’s away from his cock.

Ty didn’t have a chance to complain though, because the moment their hands were out of the way, Zane took Ty’s cock into his mouth and moaned.

“Fuck,” Ty gasped out in surprise. He wanted to say something about how he didn’t think this was going to be conducive to his plans of being fucked, but the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth. They were barely coming to his mind: with Zane’s lips wrapped around him, he could barely think in full sentences. He just knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if Zane kept at him for too long, he would end up coming down Zane’s throat before Zane ever had the chance to get inside him.

Ty threaded his fingers into Zane’s hair, tugging ever so slightly as Zane bobbed up and down Ty’s cock. “Zane,” he said. “Zane.”

Zane looked up at Ty, and hummed. Ty wasn’t looking at him, didn’t even have his eyes open. “Oh Ty,” Zane said in a sing-song to get his attention. “I want you to look at me for a minute.”

Ty nodded his head against the back of the couch, but couldn’t quite make his head move away from it.

“Ty,” Zane said again, tapping him on the leg. He wasn’t going to put his mouth back on Ty until they had met eyes.

Ty groaned and tried again.

Without looking at what he was doing, Zane opened the bottle of lube and squirted some onto his fingers. Once Ty picked his head up and opened his eyes, locking his hazel ones with Zane’s dark brown ones, Zane took his first finger and pressed it against Ty’s hole.

Ty groaned, hitting his head back against the couch.

Zane chuckled, continued to press his finger inside Ty, and wrapped his lips back around his cock.

Zane kept up a rhythm until he had three fingers pressed inside Ty. Above him, Ty was panting and begging him just to get his cock out already, but Zane kept up. He wanted Ty sufficiently stretched and nearing the edge before Zane did what he wanted him to do so badly.

“Zane, god, please,” Ty rambled above him, tightening his fingers in Zane’s hair, almost to the point of pain. “Please, I need you inside me. I’ve needed you inside me. Please, no more fingers.”

Ty’s words were stolen from him when Zane gave a good, hard thrust with his fingers, pressing right against his prostate. He gasped, and let his breath out on a moan.

“Zane, I can’t,” he started, but before he could get any further, Zane pulled his fingers out, and moved his mouth off of him.

Zane rested his chin on Ty’s thigh, giving him a second to recover. He wasn’t done with Ty, but they could move on to the next step. Zane didn’t want Ty hitting his orgasm until he was done with him.

“Zane,” Ty said between deep breaths.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Fuck me, please.”

“I’m going to.”

Ty groaned. “I need you.”

“I know. And you’re going to get me. How are you feeling?”

Ty took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He looked down to meet Zane’s,the sight of his smile lines and bright eyes making his heart skip a beat he didn’t think he could afford. “I’m close, but,” Ty swallowed, “not that close.”

Zane nodded, his chin digging into Ty’s thigh. “Good.”

Zane stood from the floor, bringing the lube along with him just to throw it onto the bed. He looked down at Ty and grinned, happy to see his cock wet and standing, looking ready to burst at the slightest provocation. Happy to see Ty still struggling to calm himself.

“I’m glad you’re happy about this,” Ty said, staring up at Zane and trying to glare. It didn’t work, Zane just laughed, but it made Ty feel a little bit better. Zane’s cock was hard, but he wasn’t nearly as out of sorts as Ty was; it just wasn’t fair.

Zane put his hand out, grinning when Ty took it and pulled himself up. “Let’s get to the bed,” he said, watching Ty walk that way.

The two of them got comfortable: Ty on his back, holding his knees against his chest and leaving himself open and ready for Zane, Zane on his knees, his cock in hand as he pressed himself into Ty.

They both groaned as Zane pushed in, inch by inch until his thighs were pressed against Ty’s ass.

“Fuck,” Ty groaned.

Zane nodded, but no words came out. Instead, he began to move inside Ty, starting with slow but long thrusts that brought his cock all of the way out of Ty before being pushed right back in. Ty had his eyes squeezed shut, his hands fisted in the sheets beside him.

Zane began to speed up his thrusts, moving faster and not pulling out as far. The only sounds in the room were their combined breaths, Ty’s moans and expletives as Zane thrust inside him. 

They were both coated in sweat, Zane’s hands slipping where he was trying to hold and touch Ty.

“Baby,” Zane said, sliding his hand down Ty’s side.

Ty groaned. “I’m not going to last much longer,” he said, pressing his head back into the pillow.

Zane moved his hand from Ty’s side to between them, wrapping his fingers around Ty’s cock. All Zane had to do was push into Ty one more time, the movement causing Ty’s cock to move in Zane’s stationary hand, and Ty’s orgasm hit him like a wave. 

“Fuck,” Zane said, continuing to thrust but feeling himself beginning to lose control. The feeling of Ty constricting around him, of Ty’s cum hitting his stomach, had Zane’s own orgasm building to it’s fever pitch.

Ty squeezed around him once more, this time intentionally, and Zane lost it. He had to close his eyes against the onslaught of sensation, as he felt himself spasming and emptying inside Ty.

Zane gave a few more weak thrusts before pulling out and flopping onto the bed beside Ty. For a moment, all either of them could do was breathe.

With his heart still racing, Ty turned his head to look at Zane. They were in similar states: chests heaving, skin glistening with sweat, but Zane had an arm thrown over his face. Zane was beautiful, absolutely stunning, and Ty couldn't believe he was the lucky bastard who got to have Zane in his bed, who Zane wanted to be with for the rest of his life. 

The thought was a little nerve wracking and did absolutely nothing to settle Ty's heartbeat, but it also warned him through. It was a nice feeling, an even nicer thought. 

Ty grinned and put his hand down on Zane's stomach. "That was pretty great, huh?"

"Yeah, the only reason I keep you around."

Ty reached his arm under Zane and rolled him over so he could wrap him up in his arms. He placed his lips to Zane's forehead, still smiling. "Sure it is Lone Star."

Zane flailed as he was moved, taken completely off guard by Ty grabbing and holding him. But once he was settled, it was easy to relax where he was. "It's at least a benefit."

"Ditto."

The two were quiet for a moment, enjoying each other and the afterglow, letting their bodies calm down and catch up. After not long enough, a small chirp resounded through the room.

Ty groaned in frustration. "I was really hoping we'd get to go another round."

Zane laughed and pushed at Ty. "Go check your phone. Leave me to recuperate."

"Okay, old man," Ty said with a smirk, jumping out of Zane's reach to miss any retaliation.

Zane lashed out, meaning to smack Ty's thigh, but missed by mere centimeters. He laughed as he laid back down on the bed, flopping his arm back over his eyes. "Don't you forget it, sonny."

Ty rolled his eyes. He walked over to where his pants had ended up and dug through the pocket until he found his phone. The notification had come from an email, thankfully nothing more pressing than that. Ty opened it up, seeing it was from Andi. She had already come through and sent over things for Ty and Zane to look over.

“Andi already sent us stuff,” Ty said, making his way back over to Zane. 

“Goody.”

Ty couldn’t believe all of the things that had been included. There were files detailing where the possessions were happening, including information on the location, what the incident was, and what was said by the witnesses. Andi had included official information pertaining to the case, but also personal information to help them get to the dormitory. There were close up photographs of the building and the surrounding area, and even directions directly from Grand River Avenue. It was impressive, especially for how quickly it had been put together.

Ty smirked at the sight of the police reports, but couldn’t help the knot that began in the pit of his stomach at the sight of the detailed information about those involved. How did these kids know this much?

“We need to come up with a game plan.”

“Do you have ideas?”

“Of course I do. I’ve worked these before.”

“Okay,” Zane said, sitting up and stretching. “What do you suggest?”

Ty reached out and patted Zane’s stomach, letting his eyes trail over his body. There wasn’t a single part of him that wanted to get out of this bed, or to have Zane put clothes back on. Especially not when their other option was getting their asses kicked by demons. “We get something to eat, talk through a plan, and tell the kids what we come up with.”

Zane nodded. “I could eat.”

Ty smiled warmly at him. “You want to find somewhere to go while I shower?” he asked, handing Zane his phone from the nightstand.

“Yeah.” Zane smiled over at Ty. “It probably wouldn’t be a good idea for the two of us to get in there at the same time.”

“I already thought of that,” Ty responded with a pat to Zane’s arm. “I don’t care what we have. But maybe find somewhere I can have a drink at.”

“Will do.”

…

Around an hour later, Ty and Zane were sitting at an outdoor table at a place called Crunchy’s. It was an interesting little place, all wood and emerald green, but it seemed pretty popular. Ty had noted that most of the booths inside had been filled, and there was writing from previous patrons all across the walls. It seemed like exactly the type of place he and Zane would frequent, if it was somewhere they had found at home.

Ty had his legs sprawled out under the table, absentmindedly bumping Zane’s shin with the toe of his boot as Zane looked over the menu. He wasn’t trying to be annoying, and he knew he wasn’t by the small smile on Zane’s face, he just wanted the contact. And while Zane was looking for what he was going to eat, Ty wasn’t going to get anything more than tapping.

“Did you even look at what they have on the menu?” Zane asked, his tone light and teasing.

“Of course I did, I just know what I want.”

Zane looked up at Ty over the edge of the menu, one eyebrow cocked in question.

“It’s easy to decide when you just order the signature burger,” Ty said with a smirk.

“And for your drink?”

“Whatever beer is recommended.”

Zane shrugged and went back to the menu.

Moments later, the door near them opened, and their server returned.

“Do we know what we’re having?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at Zane and perching a pen against a small notepad.

“Yeah, I’ll have the bacon avocado burger with a coke, he’ll have the famous Crunchy burger and whatever beer you recommend.” Zane looked up at the man, a smile on his lips, and handed him the menus.

When the server left them, Ty turned his eyes on Zane, his head cocked. “What was that about?”

“Huh? What was what about?”

“You ordered for me.”

“And? I already knew what you were going to have.”

That might have passed with someone else, but it didn’t work with Ty. He knew Zane too well, and the man across from him was shifting around in his seat, and wasn’t meeting his eyes.

Ty opened his mouth to respond when he heard, “Oh wow!” from the sidewalk beside them. The volume of the exclamation made both Ty and Zane turn their heads to investigate, but Ty was pretty sure he knew that voice.

Sure enough, there was Andi and some of her friends standing on the sidewalk in front of Crunchy’s.

“We were just talking about you guys!” Andi said, walking up to the outdoor seating area. “Did you get my email?”

“Yeah,” Ty said with a nod. “We were planning on discussing it over dinner.”

“Then we have great timing! We’ll come join!”

The small group of college students moved out of sight, presumably to go inside the restaurant.

“This wasn’t exactly the dinner I was expecting,” Zane said, his surprise at seeing the students written across his face.

“Me neither,” Ty agreed.

“It isn’t weird, is it? This whole thing feels a little weird.”

“You mean having dinner with kids half our age that we just met? Yeah, it’s a little weird.”

“Glad I’m not the only one feeling it.”

It didn’t take the students long to join them. Instead of grabbing another table, they just grabbed chairs and joined Ty and Zane at theirs. It wasn’t too bad, it would work a lot better if they could all put their heads and information together. The whole situation just felt off, like they were all aware of how this probably looked to the other people around them, but they all had to push past that because saving people was more important than their discomfort.

Ty had also been hoping to spend dinner flirting alongside their planning and eating, but that was just another thing he would have to give up for a few hours. It would be fine.

“So what do we have so far?” Andi asked, leaning her elbows onto the table.

It was easy to tell that Andi was more comfortable with the situation than her friends were. While she was leaning onto the table, the other four students were sitting rigid in their seats, their backs pressed straight against the back of the seat, and a few of them holding their hands in their laps. Andi was ready to talk, but her friends had their lips sealed. It made Ty wonder if this was out of shyness or if any of them had anything to hide.

“Zane hasn’t looked over what you sent over yet, and I’ve only looked at it once. Why don’t you guys talk through what you gave us?”

Andi raised an eyebrow. “Well one document was just instructions on how to get from Grand River to the dorm. A few of them just gave you visuals of the building. I wasn’t sure what all you guys wanted, but I figured those would be good since you don’t know your way around here.”

Zane nodded. “Those will definitely be helpful. Did you have anything about what’s going on?”

Andi nodded and looked around. She made eye contact with her friends, but her eyes moved on from them pretty quickly. They were in public, talking about something that would make most people suspicious of them, it was understandable to be a little paranoid. “We got police reports of what’s been going on.”

“How did you get those?” Zane asked with a raised eyebrow. He sounded impressed.

Andi smirked. “I’m not about to tell that to either of you two.”

“Alright. So they detail what was told to the cops. How did you guys figure out where this is happening?”

“And how did you find out who all is involved?” Ty asked. The knot in Ty’s stomach tightened again, just like it had when he had initially seen the information. When he had seen that part, he had been concerned about the kids they had gotten to help them. If they had that intimate of knowledge, one of them could be working with the kids who were in this mess in the first place.

Andi looked over to one of her friends, the tall, athletic boy. “Jake? You want to take it from here?”

Jake’s eyes widened slightly as everyone in the group turned their attention to him. He moved closer to the table, scooting his chair forward and leaning even closer, but his posture was still rigid. His back was still ramrod straight, his teeth were still clenched together. It looked like he wanted to get as close to the table as Andi, maybe thinking that would make him look better, but he obviously couldn’t bring himself to do it. The closest he could get was pressing his body against the table. It wasn’t relaxed or casual at all.

Jake cleared his throat a few times. “Uh, well, they’re my suitemates.”

Ty’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. He had been worried that these kids would have a closer relationship to those in trouble than just hearing about it through word of mouth around campus.

“Suitemates?” Zane asked, sounding and looking just as shocked as Ty. “Have you seen this stuff happen? Have you been there during the summonings?”

Jake nodded, looking down at the table. “I’ve been there for every one of them. It’s more dangerous for us to come back in the middle, so Shawn texts us to let us know when they’re happening. Then we either choose to be in the room, or we find somewhere else to sleep for the night.”

Zane put a hand to his forehead and rubbed it as he let out a sigh. “Would you be able to help us trap them then?”

“Um, I could let you know if he texts us? I don’t have anything to do with the summonings, so that’s the best I can do.”

“That’ll be a big help,” Ty said, reaching over and patting the kid on the shoulder. Ty had reservations about the kid, but if he was telling the truth about his limited involvement, and was so willing to help put an end to things, he deserved to be backed up by them all.

Jake nodded and sat back in his seat. He was no longer so stiff, but he still wasn’t as relaxed as Andi. Since the other kids were still just as stiff, Ty was willing to give him a break. This had to be nerve wracking for all of them. All they wanted to do was help save their classmates and keep the rest of the campus safe.

Burns’ words about how the administration was just worried about the school’s reputation came flitting back through Ty’s mind, and he had to clench his hands into fists under the table. These kids were willing to risk so much, but the administration that expected these kids to trust them could barely be trusted to do their jobs. Ty would be having words with Burns the moment they got back home. No way was he going to keep doing jobs like these, not if he was just being used to protect someone who had no regard for the people around them.

“So now to come up with a plan of action,” Zane said, sitting back in his seat and looking at Ty.

Ty nodded, but before he could start the planning process, the door beside them opened once again, and their server came back with the food Ty and Zane had ordered. It felt so long ago that they had ordered food, Ty had kind of forgotten that they were expecting anything.

It was obvious the moment the server saw the additional people at Ty and Zane’s table. He paused in his steps, just briefly, looking more like he might have tripped than stopped. But in no time at all, he was smiling at them and setting Ty and Zane’s food down in front of them.

The server pulled the notepad back out of his apron and smiled at the college kids. “What can I get all of you?” he asked.

Andi and her friends looked to one another, as if they hadn’t been expecting this question.

Ty tapped the table in front of Andi, grabbing the attention of everyone at the table. In a low voice, he said, “Order whatever you guys want, we got it.”

Zane cocked his head, a small smile on his face, but didn’t say anything.

After the college kids ordered their food, and Ty and Zane got a chance to start eating their own meals, they jumped back into the previous discussion. This time keeping in mind that a server would be returning to them sooner rather than later.

“A devil’s trap and an exorcism is the best way to get rid of the demons. But the complications come with getting them in the trap, especially when there are multiple.”

“And we’re going to have to make sure that these kids don’t just turn back around and summon the demons again once we leave,” Zane added.

“I don’t think they will,” Jake said, jumping in in a small voice. “This started off as just a dumb joke, no one thought that it would actually work. And now the demons are doing all of the actual summoning. Every time one of the possessed students actually gets the chance to say something, it’s usually begging for help or death.”

“I think we should still plan on lecturing and scaring them afterward, but we’ll figure that out as we go along,” Zane said.

Ty nodded. “This should teach them not to mess around with this shit, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. You said that your friend, Shane? Shawn? Shawn, gathers everyone to the room right? Who usually takes the opportunity not to be there?”

“Usually just me, sometimes my other roommates. It just depends on what we have the next day.”

“None of them are possessed? Your roommates, I mean?”

“No, it’s just the guys in Shawn’s room.”

“And they are always at the summonings?”

“Yeah, every time.”

“Okay, so when Shawn calls for the next one, they’ll be there, without a doubt.”

“Yeah.”

Ty nodded. “Then we just need to worry about how to get a devil’s trap set up that they’ll walk right into. The best place is a ceiling or a floor.”

Jake swallowed and looked nervously around the table. “We could probably get one painted on the ceiling.”

“Use clear paint to do it. It’ll work for this but also won’t get any of you into trouble.” Ty looked around the table, and when he saw no one seemed to have anything else to say, he hit his hand on the table, making his and Zane’s plates clatter and the kids around them jump slightly. “Meeting is adjourned.”

“And now I can eat,” Zane said, picking up his burger and taking a big bite.

Ty rolled his eyes. “You’ve been eating, Lone Star.”

“Now I can eat without worry, is that better?”

“Sure.”

Zane picked up a french fry from his plate and threw it at Ty.

When Ty caught it in his mouth, Zane’s hands went up in the air like he had scored a touchdown.

“Moving on from that,” Ty said with a smirk. “Thank you guys for helping us.”

“We want these things gone just as much as you do,” Andi said.

“I want my friends back,” Jake added.

Ty couldn’t imagine how difficult this situation was. He truly felt bad for these kids. But he didn’t fully trust them. He would keep that to himself, but there was just something in his gut that told him there was more at play that he and Zane didn’t know, and anything that put Zane in unnecessary danger was something untrustworthy to Ty.

…

After everyone ate, and Ty and Zane paid for the meal, they separated back into their own groups. Ty and Zane walking toward the Bronco, and Andi, Jake, and the others walking toward campus.

Zane bumped into Ty as they walked. “There’s something bugging you about all of this, isn’t there?”

“Yeah,” Ty said, grateful he wasn’t going to have to bring it up. “It feels like there’s something more, something that we have to be careful about.”

“I thought so too. I want to trust those kids because they’re giving us so much, but I just wonder about how they’re getting all of their information. The police reports notwithstanding.”

“I’m sure you’d have no problem getting your hands on those police reports, even at their age.”

“Exactly. That’s why I’m not worried about the police reports. One of them is probably studying computer science or has a history in coding. I don’t know. But the other information?” Zane shook his head.

“I didn’t even want to think about it.”

“I don’t either. They’re good kids.”

“But why did they have to get involved with demons?”

“Why did you get involved with demons?”

Ty thought about the first time he ever saw something supernatural, and how he hadn’t been able to give it up until he had figured out what was going on and how to kill it. He might have been involved with demons and other monsters, but he had always been more concerned with getting rid of them.

When Ty told Zane this, he shrugged. “You know how dumb kids can be.”

“Yeah, I do, I just wish they weren’t. It would make our jobs so much easier.”

“Yeah, doll, it really would. But then they wouldn’t be nearly as fun.”


	10. Chapter 10

It took three days for any information to come to Ty and Zane. They had nothing to do, not really, so they took advantage of the time to just be with one another. It just didn’t work when they were both so used to being in the middle of things.

“How much longer do you think we’re going to have to wait?” Ty asked Zane, sitting at the small table to once again clean his shotguns, his feet balanced on the edge of it.

Zane looked up from the knife he was sharpening and shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed like these things were happening regularly, so probably not long.”

Ty sighed. “I don’t like this. I don’t like waiting around for a signal from some kid.”

“At least they’re helping us out.”

“Oh I’m glad they are, I don’t know what we would have done to get the information they have. I just wish they didn’t have to help us.”

“They did get themselves into this.”

Ty looked over at Zane, confusion written across his face. “Not these ones. Which side are you on?”

Zane shrugged. “Both? Neither? I’m not wrong though. The kids helping us might not have gotten themselves involved with demons, but they understood enough about what was going on to warn people off and eventually work with us. And besides, according to you we have no idea whether or not these ones didn’t get themselves into this.”

Ty glared over at Zane, but looked down to his shotgun before Zane could respond. “I don’t want to agree with you.”

“That’s fine. You like Andi, you don’t think she deserves to be in the middle of this. But they are, we just have to make sure that they get out from the middle of it.”

“I don’t think I really like this train of thought you’re on,” Ty said after a moment.

Zane shrugged, put down one sharpened knife, and grabbed another one to start on. “I’m saying what we’re both thinking.”

“And that’s why I don’t like it.” Ty paused, watching Zane methodically sharpen his blades. He thought back to when they had begun the Linda Johnson case, what he had said about his knives. “Hey Zane? I think you can use your knives on this one.”

Zane huffed a laugh. “That’s why I’m sharpening them. I can use them, and I want to make sure they’re clean if I do use them.”

“Yeah, you don’t want to hurt the kids within the demon.”

“Right.” Zane paused his movements, and looked up at Ty with his head cocked. “Is there something I can do to these that will make them more effective with demons?”

“Huh, I didn’t think of that. But yeah, we could carve sigils into them. You could dip them in holy water when you use them. There’s probably more, those are just the two I can think of.”

Zane nodded, once again looking down at his knives. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to carve anything into this set, not when doing so would affect their weight and how they cut or fly if thrown, but he didn’t really have any other options. It wasn’t like he could just go out and get a knife the same quality of the ones he had, and not with the time they didn’t know if they had.

But he could always replace one when he got home.

“We could do it with at least one of them,” Zane said, not looking up at Ty.

Ty came over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to, not if you don’t want to.”

"I'll replace them," he responded, and handed the knife in his lap, and two others that he had already sharpened over to Ty.

Ty took two of them, handed one back, and beckoned Zane over to the table with him. He pulled up the same devil’s trap that would be laid around the dorm room on his cell phone and put the phone at the center of the table. The last thing he had to do was get his engraving set out of his duffle bag, then they would be ready to engrave some of Zane's knives.

"I'll show you what to do on this one," Ty said, holding the first knife up, "then you can do that one," he pointed at the knife in Zane's hand, "and then we'll see what happens with this one," Ty finished, pointing at the final knife.

Zane nodded, and watched intently as Ty carved a small devil’s trap about an inch from the tip of the blade. When Ty was done, he took the knife to look it over, placing it right next to the one he was to carve so he could look back at it as he went.

Not too long after starting, Zane had two knives with devil’s traps engraved into them. He held them both up in front of him, inspecting the work done on both of them and comparing his to Ty's. He was pretty happy with the work he had done, and completely willing to say that there was little difference between the two. He felt confident enough to do the third himself, so with a smirk, he took it from the center of the table and started in.

Ty just grinned at him, a surge of happiness flooding through his body. He had been loving sharing this part of his job with Zane, loving the little moments like these it was opening them up to. It might have been an odd reason to be happy, it might have been odd that watching Zane engrave knives with devil's traps and fill shotgun shells with rock salt made him proud and a little turned on, but this was something he had been hiding for so long, and now he didn't have to. Now it was something he could share with Zane.

There was part of Ty that knew he would have been just as happy to keep this part of his life and his job to himself to keep Zane out of the danger it inherently brought, but that same part knew he'd rather have Zane have all the information to keep himself safe than get dragged into something he didn't have the tools to combat. And Ty knew that this line of work brought people into the crosshairs whether or not they should be or wanted to be there.

"Done," Zane said, proudly holding the knives out to look them over again.

Ty took the knives from Zane, giving them his own inspection. "Not too bad," he said with a shrug.

When Ty looked up at Zane, he was being glared at. He tried his best to keep a neutral to unimpressed look on his face, but he just couldn't. The laughter that came out of him was loud and boisterous, infectious to anyone in the vicinity.

"I hate you," Zane said, his own laughter more subtle than Ty's, but absolutely still there.

"Yeah, sure," Ty said in response, still laughing.

Zane shook his head, a smile on his face. If Ty wasn't careful, he would absolutely end up laughing hysterically on the floor. If that happened, Zane knew he wouldn't be able to hold back his own laughter, and then he too would end up on the floor. Not that the floor was a bad place for the two of them to end up, especially not with the indeterminate amount of time they had.

Zane was just about to suggest something more physical to pass the afternoon, when Ty's phone chirped for an incoming text message. He sighed, turning back to his knives.

"Nick?" Zane asked hopefully.

Ty shook his head. "Jake got the text from Shawn. They're going to be summoning tonight."

"The class schedules of the kids in those two dorm rooms were included in the information that Andi gave us, right?" Zane asked.

"Yeah."

"How much longer are they all likely to be out of the room?"

"About two more hours," Ty said after a moment.

Zane grabbed up his knives, beginning to stash them on his body. The three with the devil’s traps were put in places that he typically grabbed for first, which would make his configuration a little different than usual, but he hoped that putting them in those places would mean he would use them instinctually instead of having to remember, in the moment, that those would help more than one of his regular knives. After his knives, he grabbed his phone, keys, and wallet. "Then let's get over there."

Ty nodded, grabbing his keys, wallet, and duffle bag.

…

At 10 o'clock sharp, Ty's phone chirped with another text from Andi. He read it and turned his phone to Zane.

_ Everyone's heading up here  _ it said.

Zane nodded. It was time to go.

For the last few hours, Andi had been sending them updates. Letting them know when Jake got out of class and back to the dorm, when the devil’s trap was finished being painted on the ceiling of Shawn's dorm room, when other people were projected to be there, and now to let them know everything would be happening soon.

The plan was that Jake and Andi would hang around in his dorm, paying special attention to the activity in the connecting room. They would paint the devil’s trap on the ceiling at the last possible moment, and let Ty and Zane know when to get inside and into position. Ty and Zane would be outside of the dorm room and would come in when the possessed students got trapped in the devil’s trap. Once inside Ty would perform the exorcism. On paper, it looked simple and straightforward. Neither one of them was under any delusion that it would work out exactly the way it was planned.

Once they were inside the building and outside of Shawn’s dorm room, Ty and Zane stood across from the door, ready and waiting, hoping that no one would come out of their rooms or down the hallway until the two of them were inside Shawn’s room.

“Do you need to let Andi know that we’re in position?” Zane asked, keeping his voice to a low whisper.

Ty just shook his head.

They waited for one, five, ten minutes with bated breath. Then, finally, there were three knocks against the door to Shawn’s dorm room. They were soft, barely there, but easily picked up in the silence of the hallway.

Zane looked over at Ty, his eyes wide. Three knocks was to say to come in with caution; something had gone wrong with the plan.

Ty nodded again and moved forward. He took the doorknob in his hand, turned it, then threw the door open. In seconds, he and Zane were inside the room, shotguns pointed to the center of the room.

Inside were six students, the four presumably possessed ones, Andi, and Jake. Andi had a look of alarm on her face, Jake one of guilt, but the other four were grinning over at Ty and Zane. It was easy to see what the problem was; the four who were possessed were keeping to the outside of the devil’s trap. They had known they were coming.

Ty had felt something off when he and Zane had met up with Andi and her friends at Crunchy’s. He had known that something was going to go wrong with this, but he had assumed that he knew that because something always went wrong, especially when he and Zane worked together. But by the time they had been going their separate ways, he had known the feeling wasn’t directed at the situation or the group of students as a whole, it had been directed toward Jake. Part of Ty had known Jake would betray them, that he had a further stake in the whole thing than he had alluded to at their meeting. It was too bad, Ty had liked him too.

“Well thank you both for joining us, we wondered when you would,” a short and broad, brown haired boy said, his smile widening and turning wolfish. 

That one had to be Shawn.

“You know we can make this easy,” Ty started, shifting his weight so he and Zane could be fully in the room.

Once they were inside, Zane used his foot to close the door. They didn’t want anyone to be able to see into this room. The noise alone would be a problem, they didn’t need eyewitness accounts too.

“You mean if we just step into this devil's trap for you? That sort of easy?”

“It would be awfully nice of all of you if you would,” Zane responded with a shrug.

Shawn rolled his eyes. “That goes pretty well against what we want out of this situation, so I think all four of us will stay right outside it.”

“I’m guessing you already knew it was going to be there,” Ty said.

“Of course! We knew what we would be walking into the night you two hashed out the plan with our mutual friends.”

Zane took the opportunity to look over at said mutual friends, knowing that Ty would keep his sights on Shawn. Andi still had a look of alarm on her face, but instead of looking at Shawn, she was looking at Jake. He could see the realization dawning on her face as she looked at him and he wouldn’t look back at her. He could see the disgust and sadness taking over her features. She hadn’t known about Jake’s involvement, but now that she did he wouldn’t be getting away with it, no matter what happened here.

“Would you like to hear my evil monologue now?” Shawn asked, spreading his hands out. “It definitely feels like the time for it, seeing as the bad guys and the good guys are here, and some revelations have been shared. I’m sure you would like to hear my plan, why I’ve decided to be here at good old Michigan State.”

Ty rolled his eyes. “Sure, we’d love to hear it. We’d love to hear it more if you just stepped into that devil’s trap, but seeing as you won’t be doing that we wouldn’t mind if you went ahead and told us your entire plan in detail.”

Shawn dropped his hands, looking over at Ty with narrowed eyes. It seemed like the demon thought that since that part of the plan had been foiled, he had the upper hand. But he didn’t trust Ty either. “Would you believe that I’m technically here for a good reason?”

“How does possessing college students equate to a good reason?” Zane asked.

“Ah, the newbie thinks he has enough information to ask questions.”

Zane shifted on his feet, tightening his hands minutely around the shotgun. He didn’t like that the demon knew he was new to this.

“I’ll humor you, and give your buddy the information he needs to fill in some holes. We’re here to get rid of the current administration,” Shawn said with a wide grin, his hands out to encompass his friends. “They’re wanted in Hell for the crimes they’ve committed, but we wanted to have a little fun here first.”

“So you’re using the kids? What fun are you trying to have?” Zane asked, incredulous.

Zane knew what past crimes the demon was talking about; he had been watching the news, had seen all of the coverage of the story breaking and the trials and the outraged students and the stories from the victims. He had heard, in passing, of other things that had happened on the campus because once one big story broke, all of the others were going to follow and continue to get coverage. It was common knowledge that the school was doing a lot to try to fix their image, but so much of that was coming from what the students were doing and what the students were pushing for the administration to do. The fact that the demons were here for the administration didn’t surprise him, but them using the students to get there didn’t sit right.

“We’re just going to cause some general havoc. Destroy some property, freak some kids out with our black eyes, maybe some other stuff.” Shawn shrugged. “They’ve been playing around with summoning, we just took advantage of the situation laid in front of us. We’ll move on to the administration for the real fun eventually.”

But in the process, they were going to ruin the lives and futures of these kids. That pushed a button for Zane that he hadn’t even known he had. His fingers clenched the shotgun again: until there was a better way to get his anger out, that was the best coping mechanism he had.

Ty turned to Zane, the movement minute, just enough to catch his attention. There was nothing else to it, but it told Zane that Ty had some sort of idea.

“Well, you’ve told us your plan. You got around ours. What do we do now?”

“You could just leave and let us do what we’re planning on doing. No one else needs to get hurt. And besides, I know the two of you don’t exactly want to help out the current administration.”

Ty shrugged. “That isn’t the point. You four shouldn’t be here, no matter what your intentions are.”

Shawn sighed and rolled his eyes. He moved toward one of the desk chairs in the room, looking put upon. Ty and Zane held their breaths.

The moment Shawn sat down in the chair, he stiffened, his relaxed and cocky attitude turning to one of shock and anger. “Who the fuck put the devil’s trap here?”

Ty smirked. “That would be us, oh mastermind.”

Shawn opened his mouth to speak, presumably to tell the others to get out, but the rest of the room moved into action before he could. In seconds, Andi was standing in front of the window, and Zane had his three knives thrown and lodged in the shoulders of the three other demons. 

The room looked decidedly different than it had when Ty and Zane had walked in. Andi was crouched in a defensive position in front of the window, her face a mask of determination. Jake was curled into a ball on the floor, his eyes clenched shut even though the room was calm. The three other demons were writhing on the floor, holding their shoulders and making futile attempts to get the knives out of them.

And Shawn was stuck in his seat, his smile wiped off of his steadily reddening face.

Andi looked relieved, sliding down the wall to sit herself on the floor. “Thank you, I didn’t really want to have to be the last person standing between three demons and the window.”

“If they had wanted to get out, they would have just left the bodies before getting to the window,” Ty said, keeping his eyes trained on Shawn but wanting to say something to her.

“That doesn’t really make me feel much better.”

Ty shrugged and pulled a book out of his duffle bag, before handing the entire bag over to Zane. There were multiple bottles of holy water inside, he trusted that Zane would take one and pass another to Andi, and those two would keep the three demons who were bound by knives in check until the exorcism was over.

Ty began to chant, ignoring the swearing and threats coming from the four demons in the room. This was all part of the procedure, until they were out of the bodies of the college students, they would cuss Ty and Zane, and maybe even Andi. They would threaten their lives and the lives of their loved ones. They would even probably tell a few lies with the intention of getting Ty to stop what he was doing. But Ty wouldn’t stop, he couldn’t.

Once the chant was done, three of the four demons had been sent back to where they belonged. That just left one, the stubborn one possessing Shawn.

Shawn gave Ty one last glare and said, “Don’t let your boss hide this one too," before he threw his head back, opened his mouth, and the demon was expelled.

For a moment, everyone just stood and stared at one another.

“Does that mean it’s over?” Andi asked, her voice barely over a whisper.

“I think so,” Zane answered, looking to Ty for confirmation.

Ty looked down at Shawn, who was now sitting limp in the chair, unconscious. He nodded; this case was done.

After quickly cleaning up the room, Ty and Zane made their way out of the dorm building. Now that their job was done, they had no reason to be there. And, neither of them really wanted to be around when Andi began reading Jake the riot act for betraying them. No matter the reason he had, it wasn’t going to be good enough. Not when he put them all in danger.

Andi walked the two of them out, following behind them at a few feet. She seemed to still be in shock; she was quiet and her eyes had the faraway look of someone thinking and processing. She didn’t look up at them until they were all beside the Bronco, and Ty had already thrown all of their stuff in the back.

“Can we call you guys if something happens again?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course. You have my card.”

Andi nodded. “I’m sorry it went like that.”

“It happens,” Ty responded with a shrug. “These cases never go the way they’re supposed to. We always over plan.”

“Is that how Shawn got trapped on the chair?”

Ty shrugged again. Andi already had her suspicions on how that happened, neither he nor Zane needed to confirm or deny anything.

“Okay, well, thank you both for what you did,” Andi said, nodding her head quickly. Her eyes steeled over and the corners of her lips dipped down into a frown. “I have to go talk to Jake.”

Ty held his hand out and shook her hand when she put hers in his. “Thanks to you too. Don’t go at him too hard, he was probably being threatened.”

Andi nodded and turned to shake Zane’s hand too. Before she walked off, she turned back to Ty. “He probably was, and there probably wasn’t a way he could have gotten out of betraying us, but he’s going to get an earful regardless. I’ll forgive him, but I need this first.”

“You have a good night Andi, and stay safe.”

“You guys too.”

And with that, Ty and Zane looked to one another, a sigh passing through both of their lips. It had been a long night.

Zane reached his hand out, grabbing Ty’s and pulling him close. “I’m glad that’s over.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Do you want to talk about what the demon said before it left Shawn’s body?”

Ty groaned and pressed his face into Zane’s shoulder. “Not really.”

“You’ll have words with Burns though?”

“Yeah.”

“And if he’s more interested in keeping the administration safe?”

“I don’t know Zane. I don’t really want to think about it.”

“Okay,” Zane said, turning his head so he could press a kiss to the side of Ty’s head. “What do you want to do from here?”

“I don’t want to go immediately home, that’s for sure. We deserve a day.”

“Despite having the last few to just do nothing, I totally agree.”

“We still need to see Beaumont,” Ty said, moving his head to smile at Zane.

Zane smiled back, the look soft as it crinkled the sides of his eyes. “We do.”

“Well, we’re already here,” Ty said, raising his eyebrows.

Zane laughed, pulled away from Ty, and swatted at his ass before he started to walk off. “Then let’s go.”

Ty shook his head as he followed after Zane, rushing to catch up so he could take Zane’s hand in his. He absolutely loved how happiness changed Zane. It made Zane brighten and more willing to love life, and just a hint of a happy Zane made Ty want to commit the rest of his life to finding every single thing that would bring that out in him.

...

It took no time for the two of them to walk from the dorm where the possessions had been happening over to Beaumont Tower. It was a completely different walk than the one they had taken just days before, even though their end goal was the same. It was dark now, the buildings and sidewalks selectively lit up. There weren’t as many people wandering around, only a few groups of students walking or stumbling, no families and no dogs. They also felt different; Ty and Zane had had a long day and an even longer night. They were mentally and physically tired, and didn’t have the same desire to go wandering as they had had the other day. This walk was strictly about getting where they were going and then getting back to their hotel room.

Ty held tight to Zane’s hand, enjoying the feeling of their fingers being entwined, enjoying the knowledge that they were out in public and they could do this without worrying about losing their jobs or their partnership. He couldn’t deny that he was partly doing it to keep going the right way since he had no idea where they were going, but ultimately he was happy to just let Zane lead him along. 

After a few minutes of Zane dragging Ty along brick sidewalks, they stopped in front of the tower. It loomed over them, the brick of the tower lit up and casting shadows. Ty noticed the large clock face and suddenly remembered the chiming he had heard every time they had been on the campus. He wondered what it would sound like from where they were standing.

Zane had stopped them right in front of the tower, between the building itself and a small section in the sidewalk that had beautiful plants in it. “I don’t really know what constitutes in the shadows of the tower,” Zane said, referencing the legend that had brought them here in the first place.

Ty shrugged. “I don’t think it really matters.”

“You’re right,” Zane responded, turning to Ty and smiling at him.

Zane had an odd sense in the pit of his stomach, one that was making him nervous and making him wonder if bringing up the urban legend a few days ago had been a good idea. He had wanted to come to the tower simply for the name alone, but the story had intrigued him. He didn’t believe that it would do anything, if he and Ty did stay together for the rest of their lives, it wasn’t going to be because they kissed in the shadow of some clock tower they had never heard of before. If they stayed together, it would be because they had worked toward their relationship and wanted to be together. No amount of ghost hunting or demon possessions would change how Zane felt about things like this.

But he got the sense that the story was making this moment more difficult than it needed to be. Afterall, they were just here to kiss under a tower called Beaumont. There didn’t need to be anything else to it, but there was.

“Do you still want to go through with this?” Zane asked, grabbing onto Ty’s other hand so they stood facing one another as the tower looked on upon them.

“Of course I do, why wouldn’t I?” Ty asked, his brows bunched in confusion. He had a knot in his stomach and an odd sense that they were biting off more than they could chew, but at the end of the day this was just a story.

“You believe in this stuff more than I do, but I’m still getting a feeling of foreboding.”

“Isn’t it just a kiss under a tower?”

Zane shrugged.

“Do you feel like you’re tempting fate? Like you’re giving up your own free will?” Ty asked, because that was kind of how this felt to him.

Ty firmly believed that if they were going to be together for the rest of their lives it wasn’t going to be because of some tower, but Zane was right. This was the sort of thing that Ty believed in, that Ty didn’t feel right messing with.

“We don’t have to do it,” Zane said, shrugging his shoulders and making Ty do it too because of the way their hands were. “We saw the tower.”

Ty shrugged, and pulled Zane close to him by their clasped hands. He let go of Zane, only to wrap his arms around him, and pressed their lips together. He held Zane close, and moaned into the kiss when Zane responded in kind. This was the type of kiss that they shared in the privacy of the row house or Zane’s apartment, or a hotel room in a place no one knew them. This was the type of kiss that promised comfort, promised distraction, promised something more to come.

They might have been tempting fate, they might have been giving up their own free will when it came to their relationship, but when it came down to it, they wanted to be together. It wouldn’t matter if there was or wasn’t a kiss under a tower, it would end up right in the end. They would end up right in the end.

No matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're at the end! Thanks to everyone who has read and left kudos and comments! I appreciate you all very much.
> 
> (And sorry for the wait, I got self conscious about posting, whoops)


End file.
